Lock and Key
by Digikitty
Summary: Final part in the Survival Trilogy. The Demon has appeared, and now everything is falling together. Can Netto and Enzan find a way to stop the evil Nomde before he takes over the world? Finished
1. Chapter One

Netto sat in bed, watching the snow fall outside. The hospital room he was in was quite, since it was night time, and visiting hours had ended awhile ago. His parents had gone home, or rather, his mother had gone home. His dad had been called back to work a few weeks ago, and had been out of the country since. Netto was still in the hospital, even though it had been a little over a month since the attack. For some reason the doctors couldn't figure out, the wound hadn't healed. No one could figure out why. Regardless, Netto was getting very tired of being in the hospital. He just wanted to get back to his normal life...well, as normal a life as he had, anyway.   
  
"Netto-kun, you should try to sleep," Rockman said from the Pet that was sitting on a table next to the bed.   
  
"Sleep? I haven't done anything to possibly make me tired," Netto complained. "The only thing I'm tired of is being stuck in here."   
  
Rockman sighed but didn't answer. Netto was in a bad mood, and wouldn't listen to anything the navi said. Through the bond they shared Rockman knew that Netto was both tired and in pain, but the boy refused to admit to either, or to being in pain, at least. Rockman just wished that there was something he could do to help his brother, but at the moment he was completely useless.   
  
"Well, why don't you walk for a little bit. The doctors said that was fine, as long as you don't strain yourself to much."   
  
"I guess," Netto sighed, sounding resigned. He carefully got out of bed The movements tugged at the bandages covering the wound, and Netto paused for a moment before standing up. Grabbing his Pet, he moved out into the hall. One of the nurses spotted him and smiled, but otherwise remained quiet, going back to her chore of checking in on the other patients. Around him Netto could hear the sounds of machines, tvs and heaters in the other rooms. Most of the patients were asleep, and those that weren't were being very quiet.   
  
Netto made it as far as the nurse's station when a small wave of exhaustion hit him. So did a twinge of pain in his shoulder. Groaning softly, Netto turned to return to his room when the same nurse he'd passed before came up next to him with a wheelchair.   
  
"Here, I'll help you back," she said.   
  
Feeling to exhausted to feel irritated, Netto let her help him. This wasn't the first time these waves of exhaustion had hit him, there had been several of them for the past month. The doctors knew about them, and shrugged them off as being his body's repsonse to trying to heal, and said it was normal. Netto was willing to go along with their answer, but Rockman wasn't so certain. But there wasn't anyone for him to ask, so all he had to go on was a bad feeling. The navi couldn't help but feel worried, especially when it was his brother that this was happening to. All he could do though was watch and wait.   
  
*****   
  
Nomde moved slowly through the Net City, taking in all of the sites. Around him other navis were walking past without noticing him. That would change soon, though. All of it would change. Very soon they would all be bowing down before his power, and he would make the world his. Just as soon as he found another human to be his pawn. Not an easy task when he was stuck inside the net.   
  
Oh, he knew all about the net, even though no such thing had existed in his own time. Cesare's memories had become his own through the use of his servant, who had unfortunately been destroyed in battle. It served the creature right for messing up the ritual that brought Nomde back. If the creature had just struck the boy in the heart like he'd been supposed to do, Nomde wouldn't be stuck in the net, looking for another human to serve him.   
  
At least he didn't have to worry about those stupid wolves, though. The majority of them had been killed in the fire, and the ones that had survived were severely injured and wouldn't be up to anything any time soon. Perfect for him, as he leeched away the lifeforce of the boy he was connected to. He had to be careful about that too, though. There was another bond within the boy, and it wasn't the one that connected him to that other human that was the reincarnated wolf. No, that was something Nomde could easily hide from. This bond was something...different. Something he had never dealt with before. It was wary of danger, and Nomde was having difficulty staying out of its sweeping eye. Soon though, it wouldn't matter. Soon he would have everything he needed, and then none would be able to stop him.   
  
"Hey, are you okay there?"   
  
A soft, chime-like voice brought Nomde out of his thoughts. He looked over to see a blue-eyes navi with green body-armor staring at him. The way she stood and the way her eyes kept darting around, Nomde could tell that she was one who was used to working in the shadows, a possible ally for Nomde. He would need some for the time being, to achieve his goal.   
  
"I'm quite fine. What do you want?" Nomde snapped.   
  
The other navi smirked. "You look like you need something. Perhaps I can help. Or maybe my human operator can."   
  
It looked like the spirits were smiling at Nomde today. He wasn't about to get careless, but there was no harm in talking to this navi or her human. With luck, it would be someone willing to help him for the promise of immense power or wealth. All humans were the same, greedy little creatures that could be bought for the right price.   
  
"Maybe you can. Would you care to introduce me to this operator of yours?"   
  
"Certainly. Follow me."   
  
The navi took a hold of Nomde's hand and linked out of the Net City. They reappeared in a Pet, and through the screen Nomde could see a young woman. Her eyes were hidden behind a pair of dark sunglasses, and a cigarette resting in an ashtrey next to her hand. Her dark hair was tied in a loose braid which had fallen over one of her shoulders. In her left hand was a lighter, which she flicked on and off every few seconds.   
  
"Well, well, well, look what the navi dragged in. Chhaya, who is this?"   
  
"My name is Nomde," Nomde replied, not bothering to let the other navi speak.   
  
The woman took a puff of her cigarette before putting it out. She exhaled the smoke before speaking again.   
  
"So what can I do for you, Nomde?"   
  
"I'm in need of a human agent, one that won't ask questions about what they're doing."   
  
"Oh yeah? And what's in it for me if I become you...agent?"   
  
"Immense wealth and power. Interested yet?"   
  
"Very. Maybe we can work something out."   
  
"Yes, maybe we can." 


	2. Chapter Two

Kichi was tossing restlessly in her sleep. Dreams had been tormenting her for the past month, leaving her very deprived of sleep. The dreams were vague at best, but the feeling of terror and pain were very clear. Clear enough that the feelings remained with her throughout the next day, robbing her of any rest she could get then.   
  
Finally her eyes opened and she sat up. There would be no sleeping for her tonight. Moaning loudly, Kichi got up off of the couch and walked over to the window. She was still getting used to not seeing the mountains whenever she looked outside, since she had moved into Densan City temporarily at the request of her great-grandmother. Something was going to happen, and it was going to happen soon, said both the Seer and Kichi's own visions. It all had something to do with the events that had started two years ago, and had led up to Netto being stabbed. It was far from over, the visions said, but they offered no clue as to when or how it was going to continue. Or how it would end. To many possibilities for her gift to show her anything that far ahead, it seemed.   
  
"This is driving me mad!" Kichi exclaimed, punching the wall. The noise startled Skunk-chan, who had been curled up in a basket underneath the coffee table. Yawning the skunk got up and trotted over to Kichi, rubbing up against the young woman's leg like a cat. Kichi opened her eyes and looked down and the little beast and smiled a bit.   
  
"Sorry, there, Skunk-chan. Didn't mean to scare you like that."   
  
Who says you scared me? the skunk thought to Kichi. I've seen bears more frightening than you.   
  
"Right...You're not afraid of a bear, but you were scared of Enzan's hair," Kichi retorted. Skunk-chan hissed softly.   
  
I was not scared! Just startled. And this is besides the point. The point is that you are frustrated because you can't find that thing that attacked the boy.   
  
"Damnit! We've looked everywhere! There just isn't any sign of anything wrong, and my visions don't show me anything useful!"   
  
Maybe you're looking to hard, Skunk-chan said, licking one of her paws. Or maybe you're just looking at it the wrong way.   
  
That was a concept that hadn't occurred to Kichi before. It wasn't something she was used to thinking about.   
  
"So what would you suggest, oh wise spirit?" She asked sarcastically.   
  
Skunk-chan gave Kichi a pointed look and went back to her basket. If the visions won't come to you, you go to them, simple as that. You have the gift to speak with the spirits, use it. Now if you don't mind, I am going back to sleep.   
  
Kichi sighed as she watched the skunk curl back up for her nap. If only she could do the same. But the little furball was right about one thing, she couldn't give up just yet. Not until this thing was truly over, and she could feel that was going to be a long ways off.   
  
*****   
  
The next time Netto woke up it was morning, and the sun was shining brightly. It reflected off of the snow that had piled up on the windowsill, making the light even brighter. Yawning loudly, the boy sat up and looked around. The room was empty and quiet, as usual. But not for long. Once the nurse saw that he was awake she walked off, returning with Enzan in tow.   
  
"Enzan!" Netto exclaimed happily.   
  
"Hi, Netto. I was beginning to wonder if you would ever wake up. Its well past noon."   
  
"I was tired!" Netto protested.   
  
Enzan smiled. "I know. I was just saying that it was late. But Rockman told us that you didn't fall asleep till late."   
  
"No offence, but you don't look like you've been sleeping well either," Netto replied.   
  
It was true. Enzan looked about as tired as Netto felt, which was saying something.   
  
"I haven't slept to well the past few weeks," Enzan admitted.   
  
"How come?"   
  
Enzan shrugged. "Nightmares, nothing to worry about though. I'm more worried about you and the fact that you haven't healed yet."   
  
Netto sighed and leaned back against his pillow. "You and everyone else. I'm just tired of being stuck in here. I just want to go home."   
  
"I know. Just be patient. That wound has to heal sometime."   
  
Before Netto could reply, Enzan's Pet beeped. He took it out and looked at it for a moment. From his expression Netto knew that Enzan wasn't pleased with the news.   
  
"What's wrong?" Netto asked.   
  
"Nothing, my father needs me back at the company for a meeting," Enzan sighed. "I'll come back as soon as its over, okay?"   
  
"Fine by me. I won't be going anywhere," Netto snorted.   
  
Enzan nodded and left the room, leaving Netto alone again. With nothing better to do, the boy lay back down and closed his eyes. Surprisingly enough, considering that he couldn't find get to sleep easily last night, he fell asleep very quickly today.   
  
*****   
  
Ah, good, the brat was asleep again. Nomde grinned. The boy was so much easier to tap into when he was asleep. That other bond seemed to be less alert at the time as well, not that Nomde was going to underestimate that any time soon. No need to have his plans set awry again.   
  
So far his plans were going exceedingly well. Kyan, the human that had agreed to work for him, was both clever and quick in her work. He had just talked to her last night, and already she had gathered much of the data he needed to make his plan work, and would begin installing it as soon as she got into the SciLabs. A difficult chore to be sure, but from what Chhaya had told him, Kyan was an expert thief and could get into any place undetected. Whether or not this was just prideful boasting had yet to be seen. If she did get in unnoticed he would reward her greatly; if not, he would simply find someone else to do his bidding. All he had to do for now was bide his time. And time was something he had pleanty of. 


	3. Chapter Three

"Data " The computer beeped softly. Kyan smiled and plugged out her Pet. Getting into the SciLabs had been an easy task, more so than she would have thought. Then again, no one had thought anything about her when she'd shown up dressed as a scientist. With so many different projects going on, one more scientist in the bunch wasn't going to be noticed. She had simply taken over a small lab, locked the door, and hooked up her Pet and begun the downloads as Nombe had instructed her. Not a challege at all. In fact, it had been down right boring.  
  
"I hope you had something more challeging in mind when you asked me to come here," Kyan hissed at the darkly colored navi. "Because I could have done this stuff at home. Not to mention this outfit is very tacky."  
  
"You can worry about fashion once I'm finished. I had you come here for a reason. There's a chip in these labs that contains a special code that I need. You're job is to get it and download it into the net for me. Once that is done, you shall be paid for your services."  
  
Kyan grinned. "So I get to use that sleeping gas after all. I was beginning to wonder if setting those canisters up all over this place had been a waste of time."  
  
"Nothing I ask you to do is a waste of time. Now put on that mask and set off the canisters."  
  
"Yes, Sir."  
  
Kyan pulled a gas mask out of her bag and pulled it over her face. Then using her Pet as a remote, activated the canisters so that the gas poured out of them and spread throughout all of the labs. Outside of the lab she was in she could hear people coughing and falling to the ground as the gas knocked them out. They would be out for a few hours, more than enough time for her to steal the chip.  
  
"They should all be out by now," Kyan said, opening her door. Sure enough, scientists were lying everywhere, breathing, but otherwise dead to the world. All of them would have one hell of a headache when the effects of the gas wore off. Kyan didn't pity them in the least. "So where is this chip?"  
  
"Locked up in one of the other labs. This man should have the keycard on him."  
  
Nomde brought up an image of a man Kyan knew very well. It was her ex-collegue, Dr. Yuuichiro Hikari. That just made this thing all the more amuzing to Kyan. To be able to pull this stunt on the man who had ruined her career was a treat indeed.  
  
"Oh, this is excellent. Its not often you get a chance to pull one on the guy who ruined your career," Kyan chuckled as she began to search through the sea of unconscious people. Finally she found Dr. Hikari in one of the larger labs, slumped over some papers he'd been working on. She fished through his pockets until she found the key that Nomde had been talking about.  
  
"Right then, where to now?"  
  
"Go down this hallway to the 7th door on the left," Nomde instructed, pulling up a map of the SciLabs. The chip will be somewhere inside."  
  
Moving quickly, Kyan raced through the labs, down the hall and into the room Nomde had shown her. She was breathing quickly, but from excitement rather than fatigue. She was in excellent shape, as one of her expertise would be expected to be. A lazy thief was a poor thief, after all.  
  
Using the keycard to open the door, Kyan entered the room. There wasn't much inside in the way of equipment, or anything else, for that matter. There was a glass case in the middle of the room, and inside was a single chip made of a very dark metal. The only markings on the thing were three small grooves in each corner.  
  
"Well, should I pick the lock, or just pull a smash-and-grab?" Kyan asked.  
  
"Don't waste your time with a lock. By the time the police get here we shall be long gone," Nomde replied.  
  
"Works for me," Kyan grinned, picking up one of the chairs that were in the room and bringing it down on top of the glass safe. The safe shattered into thousands of pieces, and at the same time an alarm when off. Kyan grabbed the chip and put it in her pocket, then raced back out of the labs all together. She had her truck waiting in the back of the labs, and as Nomde had said, they were gone without a trace by the time the police arrived on the scene.  
  
Enzan woke up with a start, breathing heavily as sweat poured down his neck and back. He'd been hit with another nightmare, this one worse than any of the others, because this one had actually had images instead of vague feelings. Netto had been swallowed up by a huge shadow, and Enzan had been powerless to stop it. Blues and Rockman had both been destroyed, and Kichi was just vanished into nothing. And through it all were immense feelings of pain and despair.  
  
"Are you alright, Enzan-sama?" Blues asked, looking at his operator. It was clear that he was worried.  
  
"I-I'm fine," Enzan lied. "Blues, could you check on Netto for me?"  
  
"Of course, Enzan-sama."  
  
The navi nodded and disappeared from the screen. With a sigh Enzan laid back down and stared at the ceiling. He felt so useless at the moment. He wanted to protect Netto, and yet there was nothing that he could do, that he knew of. He'd asked Kichi, but she hadn't been able to figure anything out, either, though she had told him that she was working on finding some stuff out. She hadn't elaborated on that comment, and Enzan hadn't asked. If she had needed his help she would have said something.  
  
"Netto is doing fine, Enzan-sama," Blues reported upon returning. "He was sleeping peacefully when I arrived."  
  
"Thank you, Blues."  
  
'Now if only I could do the same' Enzan thought, closing his eyes.  
  
Kichi sat at the top of the hill out in the middle of nowhere, her eyes closed, her body completely relaxed. Around her there were no lights, no houses, no roads; only the surrounding forest and the sky covered in stars. Everything was quiet, as it would be on a winter night. The wind blew softly, barely making a whisper over the snow-covered land. All of this helped Kichi enter the trance state she needed to speak with the spirits.  
  
I come to you asking for your help! Kichi shouted out as she stood amdist the sea of stars that was the world of the spirits. She could feel them surrounding her, even though she couldn't see them. No human was ever meant to see them.  
  
We hear you cry, Sister. We know why you come! A booming voice replied, sounding like thousands upon thousands of chimes ringing together.  
  
Then please show me what form our enemy has taken so that our warriors may rise up against Him. Show me what my dreams will not!  
  
The stars gathered in front of Kichi, swirling together until they became a grey mist. Then the mist began to take shape, creating the image of nothing less than a navi. Though she did not rely on such technology herself, she recognized what it was. The navi had dark grey and black body armor, and red eyes with black slits that reminded her of a dragon. The emblem on the navi's helmet was a dragon, one getting ready to strike. Kichi burned the image into her memory so that she would be able to draw it later for all to see.  
  
This is the form your enemy has taken. Your warriors must stop him before his powers become to great. But we offer you a warning as well. To take His life, you must give up something of your own as well. What it is, even we know not. We have told you all we can, Sister. The rest lies in your hands.  
  
With a gasp Kichi came out of the trance, trembling and covered in sweat. The wind blew on her cooling her down very quickly, causing her to shiver instead. She was weak from the vision-seeking, but it had been worth it. She now knew what they were looking for, and where they had to look. It was the Spirits' warning that worried her. 'In order to take His life, you must give up something of your own'. What were they supposed to give up, and more importantly, who was supposed to give it up? It seemed that, the more answers they found, the more questions that came up in their place.  
  
"Oh well," Kichi sighed. "Right now its best to concentrate on finding that navi. At least Enzan won't feel so useless now." 


	4. Chapter Four

Rockman paced back and forth inside the net, stopping every few minutes to check on Netto. Blues had showed up briefly to check on Netto, at Enzan's request, but hadn't stayed long. His other friends had stopped by as well, but they had left awhile ago. Roll had tried to get him to go to the Net City for awhile, but Rockman had declined. He felt that if he left Netto's side for even a minute, something bad was going to happen.  
  
If only I could be with him in the real world instead of being stuck in here, the blue navi thought. I can't even help my own brother.  
  
Like he had many times since Netto had entered the hospital, Rockman wondered if he would have been able to stop this if he had been there. Sure, he knew that Pets didn't work all the time on those mountains, his first trip there with Netto had been proof of that. But he couldn't help but feel that somehow he was responsible for this. If only he had been there he could have changed something, and Netto wouldn't be lying in that bed right now with all those machines hooked up to him, getting weaker every hour and the doctors not being able to do anything to help him!  
  
Rockman didn't want to loose his brother, even if he could never be in the same world with him. He knew that Papa and Mama wouldn't be able to take it, either. It would break them as well as Rockman. Loosing one son had been hard enough, to loose the other one would be too much.  
  
"Grrr! I should be able to do something! Why can't I help my brother?!" Rockman shouted, punching the wall, making a dent in it.  
  
At that same moment he felt a thought of amusement flicker through his mind, a thought that was neither his nor Netto's.  
  
"Who's there?" Rockman called out, scanning the area around him. It was empty. The moment he'd said something the strange feeling had vanished as well. Perhaps he did need to leave for a bit. Perhaps he would go visit Blues. If anything happened to Netto, he would know it immediately. Nodding to himself and telling himself that it would be fine to leave for a bit, the blue navi left to find Blues.  
  
That was a close call Nomde thought, pulling his mind away from both Rockman's and Netto's, taking some energy from the boy as he did so. The boy's navi had nearly caught him. That navi was a problem for Nomde, especially with the bond the navi had for the boy. It was a strange bond without a doubt. Much deeper than anything he'd felt between Kyan and her navi. It was that bond that had nearly exposed Nomde a moment ago. He'd have to do something about that. He would not use Kyan and Chhaya though.  
  
Their part in his plans had ended once Kyan had downloaded the data from the chip into the net for him. He'd paid her, as promised, and had promptly left. He had yet to open the data, he'd wanted a more secure place to do it in, without prying eyes. That had taken him to the back corners of the Net City. Making certain that no one else was around, Nomde took the data out and tried to open it. And quickly got a nasty surprise. An electrical field shot out of the bit of data, sending Nomde flying to the ground!  
  
"Damn!" The navi cursed, getting to his feet. He should have known there'd be a lock on the codes. Of course there would be a lock, the spirits who had trapped him hadn't been stupid. He'd have to find the key if he wanted his full power restored. Unfortunately for him, the key he needed wasn't in the net, and he was. He knew which boy he needed, this time. It certainly wasn't Netto, or he would have known it by now. No, he needed that other brat to open the data to get the code.  
  
"I should have known he still fit into this somehow! Damn it all!"  
  
"Is something wrong, puku?" an annoying voice asked. Nomde turned to see an annoying-looking navi to match the annoying voice coming up behind him. Of all the rotten luck!  
  
"That's none of your business," Nomde sneered.  
  
"Okay, I was just trying to help, puku," the navi replied.  
  
"Unless you can find a way for me to get out of the net for a few minutes, I suggest you move on!"  
  
The navi's expression brightened when he heard Nomde's comment. "I know a way, puku!"  
  
"What? How?"  
  
"Will you be my friend if I help you, puku?" the navi asked.  
  
Nomde looked like he would rather be fed to snapping turtles, but what choice did he have? If he wanted to get that other brat to open the data, he'd have to make a few sacrifices.  
  
"Very well, I'll be your friend."  
  
"Yay! I have a friend, puku! Follow me!" 


	5. Chapter Five

"We're here, puku!" Bubbleman exclaimed, pulling Nomde through a link. They entered a dark space where there were a few other navis standing around. None of them looked very happy to see Bubbleman, and even fewer of them looked pleased to see Nomde. Not that the demon-navi cared one way or another. He just needed a way to get to that other boy so he could open that data.  
  
"How dare you bring this stranger here!" a navi shaped similar to a vampire shouted at Bubbleman. "Are you stupid? He could be with the Net Saviors!"  
  
Even as the vampire-like navi was shouting this, the others had formed a circle around Nomde. The black navi grinned. These foolish creatures had no idea the amount of power he held. Well, it was time for a demonstration. Before the other navis could begin to attack, Nomde simply called a bit of engery into his hand and waved it at the navis around him, sending them flying into the wall and holding them there.  
  
"Net saviors?" Nomde sneered. "I? Don't insult me, fool. I have no need or desire to ally myself with weak humans. I simply use them for my plans, then dump them aside like bits of trash. That's all they're really good for, anyway."  
  
"Who are you?" the vampire navi asked, looking at his fellow navis who were stuggling to pull themselves away from the wall. Nomde released the energy field, causing them all to fall to the floor. "And what do you want?"  
  
"My name is of no concern to you, but what I want, perhaps you can help me with, and I can give you something in the process."  
  
"I'm listening..."  
  
"I need a certain human to open this data for me, as he is quite literally the key to its lock. My friend Bubbleman here has told me that you have a way of bringing the net and the human world together tempoarily that could make getting this meeting possible."  
  
"And what's in it for us?" a red navi demanded.  
  
Nomde smirked. "From what I have heard, you can only enter the real world temporarily. What if I were to tell you that I have the power, once I get this data cube open, to permanently bring the net and real world together. That you would have the power to enslave and destroy the human world as you wish."  
  
"You truly have this power?" the vampire navi asked cautiously.  
  
Nombe brought up a view screen of the hospital room where Netto was currently lying down. The brown-haired boy was truly looking worser by the hour. Nomde was amazed he had held out this long. Then again there was that bond between the boy and Rockman that was a factor in this, not to mention Netto's bond with Enzan.  
  
"The net saviors!" the group of navis sneered. Nomde's smirk grew.  
  
"Yes, the net saviors. I put Rockman's operator in the hospital, and have been doing an adequet job of keeping him there. It seems that none of you have been able to do nearly quite as much. I know, I did a bit of reseach on you over the past few seconds. Consider that one of my many gifts. I know that all of your are eager to kill off the net saviors, I can make that possible. All I need is that other boy to open the data cube, and then I shall merge our world with theirs. Think of all the damage you could do."  
  
"And how will you get the other boy to agree to open the cube? He's more likely to delete you first, puku."  
  
"You would think that, simply because the lot of you are simple-minded. I put Netto into the hospital, and I have the power to kill him off right now. I guarantee you that the boy will agree to my demands if it will save his precious Netto. So, do I have your cooperation or not?"  
  
The vampire navi had a thoughtfull look on his face. He was clearly the one that was making the decisions for the group. Nomde waited patiently for the navi's answer.  
  
"Very well," said the navi. "We shall help you. Just choose the place and time."  
  
"Excellent..."  
  
Kichi had returned to the SciLabs to talk to her uncle, finding it full of police officers. She'd heard that someone had broken into the lab and stolen a data chip of some sort. Whoever had broken into the labs had used sleeping gas to knock all of the scientists out while they did their job. The scientists had been fine, but the robber had left very few clues behind.  
  
"Excuse me, Miss, but you can't be in here right now," said a tall man in a police uniform.  
  
"Like hell I can't," Kichi said, trying stepping around him. "Where is Hikari Yuuichiro? I need to speak with him."  
  
"Miss! You cannot come in here!" the man shouted. "That is a police order!"  
  
Kichi turned her head and looked at the man. Looking closer at his face, Kichi placed a name to the man. His name was Martin, and he was a very inapt police officer. She'd had to put up with him when her greatgrandmother had volunteered Kichi's patrol group to help train some new officers. Kichi had no respect for the man then, and she didn't have any respect for him now, either.  
  
"Your police order can kiss my ass. I need to speak with my uncle, now. So I suggest you step aside before I move you myself."  
  
From inside her carrysack Skunk-chan hissed. Kichi was sorely tempted to let the little beast out to distract the man so Kichi could find her uncle. She needed to talk to him as soon as possible.  
  
I wouldn't mind, Skunk-chan said. In fact, I would enjoy it. I think I shall play with this man for a few moments.  
  
Before Kichi could say anything to the contrary, Skunk-chan was out of the bag and clinging to the man's face! Martin fell backwards, allowing Kichi to get around him and into one of the smaller offices where she had heard her uncle's voice a moment before. Sure enough he was inside, talking with Enzan and two other men, one sporting a lab coat and goggles, the other wearing a green and red uniform with a funny looking hat over his white hair. The second of the two glared at Kichi with cold eyes as she entered. Kichi promptly ignored him.  
  
"Excuse me, but we are in the middle of a meeting," the white-haired military-type man snapped.  
  
"So I see. But I brought some news for my uncle, so if you don't mind, please sit down and shut up," Kichi snapped back.  
  
"Its alright, Laika," Yuuichiro sighed. "I asked Kichi to help us with this. Kichi, this is Laika and Meijin. You already know Enzan. Meijin, Laika, this is my niece, Kichi."  
  
That wasn't true, but Kichi wasn't going to argue. She'd done some investigating of her own when she'd heard about the robbery. She may not have had a Pet or navi of her own, but she was well connected to various hackers, and what she couldn't find, they could, once she had some hints to offer them. They had put together what information they could find about the navi she'd seen and sketched, but there wasn't to much, as of yet.  
  
"This is the information I found out, Uncle," Kichi said, placing the small notebook onto the table. "Its not much to go on, yet. My contacts are still scouting around."  
  
Meijin opened the notebook to a sketch of the navi Kichi had drawn as soon as she'd come back from the mountains. She had no intention of telling these people how she had gotten that sketch, they wouldn't believe her. Well, Yuuichiro and Enzan would, Meijin looked like he might, but the fourth, Laika, definitely would not. Around the sketch were the various notes her contacts had come up with.  
  
"Where did you get this information from?" Laika asked suspiciously.  
  
Kichi smiled, very slightly. This guy had an attidude problem even worse than Enzan's! Shame he hadn't been invited to the survival contest two years ago. She would have enjoyed tormenting him. She'd just have to work on that after they stopped the demon.  
  
"My contacts have no desire to be named, sir," Kichi replied, her tone soft. Her brothers would have known that voice as a warning of her at her most dangerous. Certainly Yuuichiro recongnized it, because he intervened before Kichi could go at it with Laika.  
  
"Laika, enough, please. She is trying to help us."  
  
Laika went silent, but his glare got worse. This was going to be an amusing experience for Kichi. If she got stuck working with him... Enzan at least was somewhat used to her by now, so that wouldn't be a problem. And they both had a common goal, to help protect Netto. Laika had none of these qualities, so luck was against him already.  
  
"Thank you for these notes," said Meijin. "They should be very helpful."  
  
"No problem. If you need help with anything else, let me know. I'll be around," Kichi replied, hearing the dismissal in his words. Her words were directed at Enzan, who nodded, ever so slightly. If she hadn't been looking for it she would have missed it. She said good bye to Yuuichiro and Enzan, nodded to Meijin, and promptly ignored Laika as she walked out of the room. Back out in the main hall Skunk-chan rejoined her, hopping onto her shoulder. Martin was on the other side of the room, having some scratches looked at. Kichi didn't say anything to him, and he said nothing as she left.  
  
Things are beginning to pick up, Skunk-chan observed quietly.  
  
"That they are, my friend. That they are," Kichi agreed. 


	6. Chapter Six

Kichi waited in her truck near the SciLabs, waiting for Enzan to come out from his meeting. Netto could use some company, and Enzan looked like he wouldn't mind getting away from that Laika fellow for awhile. She couldn't understand what that man's problem was. Maybe he just didn't like woman.  
  
Or maybe he's just a jerk to everyone Skunk-chan snorted.  
  
"You didn't even see him," Kichi retorted.  
  
Didn't have to. Can tell just from your thoughts.  
  
"And I told you to stay out of my head or I'd turn you into a hat."  
  
Skunk-chan growled and crawled back into the carry sack. Enzan came out at that moment, so Kichi didn't bother trying to coax the skunk back out of the bag. If she wanted to stay in there, that was fine with Kichi. The older girl opened the door for Enzan so he could climb into the beat up pick-up. It still had the dents and such that had been put into it from their adventure into the forest a month ago. Kichi doubted she would ever have them fixed. She didn't really see any reason why she would spend money on something that was most likely just going to get wrecked again.  
  
The drive to the hospital was a silent one. If Yuuichiro had given Enzan any more information, he wasn't sharing it with Kichi at the moment. That was fine, though. Most likely the information was somewhere on the SciLab computers, and her hacker friend could get it for her. That thought made Kichi's lips twitch with a smile. There wasn't much that could be kept secret from her contact. Not that she was going to tell anyone that bit of information.  
  
When they reached Netto's room the boy was sitting up in bed, watching tv. He turned it off the minute he saw Enzan and Kichi enter the room. Rockman waved to both of them before taking off. Kichi didn't mind, the navi deserved to take a break every once and awhile too. He was probably as stressed out as everyone else was.  
  
"Enzan! Kichi! Its about time someone came to visit. Everyone else is in school."  
  
"Bored?" Enzan teased, moving over to sit next to Netto. Kichi chose to lean up against the wall instead of sit. She couldn't explain it, but she had a feeling that something bad was going to happen. It wasn't exactly a feeling, but there was definitely something on the way, and she didn't like the feeling it was creating.  
  
When it happened there was no warning. The Dimensional Area surrounded the entire hospital, putting everything into chaos! Viruses began to show up everywhere, getting into everything. This was what Kichi had been sensing, but couldn't place. It was odd, seeing the viruses everywhere. Of course, that didn't keep her from knocking them out. Enzan was doing the same, and Netto was making a rather weak attempt to help. There wasn't much he could do, though, not in his condition.  
  
"Hehe, what a pathetic sight," a very oily voice growled. The three humans turned to the door, where the black and red navi that Kichi had seen in her visions and the sketch she'd shown Enzan and the others was standing. He was smiling sinisterly, holding something in his hands. Enzan recognized it as a data cube.  
  
"You," Kichi hissed. "You're the beast that's been haunting my dreams."  
  
"Have I now? Interesting. You must be the Seer." The navi's gaze turned to Netto and Enzan. His eyes narrowed dangerously. "And here we have my two favorite humans. I have a chore for you, Enzan."  
  
"Whatever it is, you can forget it," Enzan growled. "The only thing I'm going to do to you is delete you."  
  
The navi laughed evilly. "Oh really? You will help me, Enzan. Otherwise, Netto's going to be joining the Spirit World very soon, and it will be very painful."  
  
Even as the navi said this, Bubbleman appeared behind Netto and wrapped his arm around the boy's neck, and Netto couldn't pull away. Both Enzan and Kichi froze.  
  
"Like I said," said the navi. "I think you will be helping me. All you have to do is touch the data cube, Enzan. Then Bubbleman and I shall leave, and take all of the viruses with us. I'll even leave Netto alone after I leave."  
  
"Why should we trust you?" Kichi growled.  
  
"Because, if you don't, Netto's as good as dead," the navi growled.  
  
"Don't do it, Enzan," Netto whimpered.  
  
Bubbleman strengthened his grip around Netto's neck, cutting off any further words. The other navi held out the data cube towards Enzan. The boy sighed and reached out and touched the cube. He just couldn't stand to see Netto get hurt by these creatures. Immediately the cube opened up, and before they could even see what kind of data it held, the dark navi absorbed it. Good to his words, Bubbleman released Netto and both navis logged out just as the dimensional area disappeared.  
  
"Enzan! You idiot!" Netto screamed. "Why did you do that?!"  
  
"I couldn't let them kill you," Enzan replied softly, helping Netto up off the ground where he'd fallen after Bubbleman had let him go. "I couldn't stand to see you get hurt any more."  
  
"Right. Well, Enzan, you better call this in to Uncle Yuuichiro and those two other guys," Kichi said, heading for the door.  
  
"Where are you going?" Netto asked.  
  
Kichi turned around to look at Netto before putting on her sunglasses. "I'm going to see a cat about hunting a mouse." 


	7. Chapter Seven

Netto watched Enzan being questioned through the window of his room. Papa and Meijin were trying to drag up every little detail of the attack, and Laika was nowhere to be seen. He thought Rockman had said that the other Net Savior was back in Densan City. Although he could be trying to track down Bubbleman and that strange navi. But there wasn't much Netto could do about that.  
  
Rockman had returned immediately as soon as he'd heard about the attack, and had been apologizing for not being there to help. Netto had simply shook his head, knowing there wasn't anything the navi could have done. He just wished there was more that he could do to help out. More to the point, he wanted to know what that navi had meant when he'd said that he would leave Netto alone after he had left. He had never seen that navi before in his life, and he was certain Rockman had never seen that navi either. And just what had that navi been doing to him before?  
  
He wanted to talk to Papa about it, but the doctors had shooed him outside soon after he'd arrived, insisting that Netto had had a bad enough shock and didn't need to have questioned fired at him and make his condition worse. This frustrated Netto to no end. He wanted to do something useful, not lie around in a hospital bed.  
  
"Netto-kun, are you alright?" Rockman asked softly.  
  
"Yeah," Netto sighed. "I'm fine."  
  
"You sound tired. You should rest."  
  
"I'm tired of resting," Netto growled. But even as he said this the medicine the nurse had put into his iv took effect, and sent him into sleep.  
  
Kichi parked her truck in front of the small building half hidden by various shops. This was the place her hacker friend lived in, and Kichi hoped that the girl was in. She needed to know just what it was that that strange navi was up to, and what was in that data cube that Enzan had opened.  
  
I smell rat nearby! Skunk-chan warned.  
  
What kind of rat? Kichi asked, getting out of her truck.  
  
The white-haired one you don't like.  
  
A smile flickered across Kichi's face. So Laika had come after her, it seemed. Well, she hadn't stayed around after the attack, and the Net Saviors probably had a few questions to ask. She didn't have the time to play games with him right now, though. Every second that she wasted was another second that the trail got colder.  
  
How did he find us?  
  
Skunk-chan poked her head out of Kichi's bag and gave her human friend a sheepish look.  
  
I accidently picked up some kind of tracker device at the Scilabs. Sory.  
  
Easy enough to fix. Go somewhere else while I talk with my friend. Have some fun with the rat.  
  
The skunk made a sound that sounded rather much like a chuckle and jumped to the ground, running off.  
  
Making sure that no one was around to see her, Kichi slipped into an alley between two buildings and slid through a hidden door. Inside was a room filled with various computers and equipment. Sitting in the center of this nest of machinery was a small girl with short brown hair and brown eyes. She didn't look very remarkable, which was as well, being that she was a hacker, and it wouldn't do to draw attention to herself.  
  
"So, you finally got here. What happened, run into traffic?" Neko asked with a smirk.  
  
"Bite me," Kichi replied. "If you knew I was coming, you know what happened. Can you tell me what was in that data cube?"  
  
Neko nodded. "Yes I can. Your navi got careless after he left the hospital, and I got a full scan of him, including the new data he integrated into himself. It seems that that data came from a chip that was locked away in the SciLabs."  
  
Kichi nodded. "Makes sense. But what does it do?"  
  
Neko's expression turned very serious. "Well, from everything I have read, if that navi finds a big enough power souce, he could use that data to create a dimensional area big enough to cover the entire world."  
  
"WHAT?!" Kichi shouted. "You can't be serious!"  
  
"But I am serious. Kichi, you have to stop him before he finds a way to do that. I can download a list of all the possible power sources he could use, but the rest is up to you and the net saviors."  
  
Kichi sighed loudly. "Great, it looks like I'm stuck working with that rat after all. Oh well. Keep me posted, okay?"  
  
Neko nodded, and Kichi left the lab to go find Skunk-chan and Laika. Then she would have to tell Yuuichiro all of this. It wasn't going to be the least bit plesant, but this was a threat she couldn't handle on her own. 


	8. Chapter Eight

Snow was falling from the dark sky yet again as Mycah led the rest of what was left of the Pack travelled deeper into the mountains, literally. They were underground, in a system of caves that ran underneath several of the mountains, branching out in several places. There beautiful pillars of stone, stalactites and stalagmites everywhere, as well as small underground streams and pools made from dripwater or where water had seeped in from the ground above. A few bats had been spotted at the entrance to the cave system, but they had long since disappeared as the single human and bunch of wolves moved deeper into the subterrainean world.

Netto had once observed that the Heart of the Forest had felt very ancient, more so than anywhere else, and Tainn had told him that he was correct. But as old as the Heart was, this place below ground was older still, and that feeling hung heavy in the air. At some point in time, some ancient people had come deep into the cave and left images painted on the walls in pigments of red, blue and green. The images were strange to Tainn and the other wolves, and yet oddly familiar as well, but there was nothing in their memory or stories that had been passed down that told them why the images looked familar. They could only guess that Mycah would give them an explanation whenever they reached what it was she wanted them to reach.

Tainn watched the old woman as she climbed over a small ledge, amazed that so old a creature could still move so well. Her age showed in her white hair and wrinkled skin, but she was still sharp of mind and quick of limb that defied the years she had seen. She had been old when Tainn was a cub, and that had been several winters ago. He had to wonder, though, if it was because of the recent events that she was moving as she was now. They had all felt something be released a few nights ago, worse than when Netto had been stabbed and the demon released, and Mycah had immediately exclaimed that something had happened to Netto. She hadn't said what; she had only called, or rather, ordered, all of the Pack to meet here at sunrise the next day for something important. That had been hours ago, and she showed no signs of stopping yet.

The ring of bells around Anuzu's paws rung eeriely in the hollow caves, broken only by the muffled sound of many paws on stone and the occasional drip of water into a pool. The only light came from the lantern Mycah carried, though the wolves could see just fine in the dark. Still, Tainn and the others were no less surprised when they came to a huge spire of twisted silverish metal jutting out of the bowels of the earth, even as the Heart of the Forest jutted out of the earth. There were more designs in the spire, these ones carved, and scenes of human warriors dressed in the skins of various animals, and images of sun-in-glorys, moons and stars covered the walls of the cave they had entered. The entire place raidated a power the likes of which the Pack had never felt before.

((What is this, Old One?)) Tainn asked, his voice soft and timid in the presense of this power.

"This is the Cave of Memories," Mycah replied, sitting down on a stond outcropping that looked as if it had sevred as a seat many times before. She set the lantern down in front of the spire, letting the light cast reflective glows of light onto the walls around it. The wolves all gathered around Mycah, all of them carefully keeping away from touching the stone. Mycah waited until they were all settled before continueing.

"This spire has been here for as long as the mountains have been here, and it is this that protects the mountains from the mess of technology that would bring danger to this place. It is the resting place of the Spirits that dwell in the mountains. That is the power you feel radiating from this place. It is the power of the earth itself, and all that is within it."

((Why have you brought us here, Old One? What is the purpose of this journey?)) Tainn asked.

"That is for me to answer." Said a voice that echoed throughout the room like thousands of chimes ringing in the wind. A bright light radiated from the metal spire, engulfing Mycah for a moment! When it faded, it was no longer an old woman that stood before the wolves, but an ageless figure that radiated with as much power as the spire behind her, and its light shone from within, making it seem as if she was glowing. All of the wolves had jumped back and were now cowering before this strange being. Most certainly this being wasn't human.

"Do not fear me, for I shall not harm you, oh brothers and sisters of my soul. I have come to show you your past, in hopes that it shall help you with your future."

The being turned to the spire and placed her hand on one of the intricate carvings. The design lit up with a blue light, and suddenly gave way to a hollow space inside of the metal! Inside of the hollow was a small box that fit in the palm of the being's hand. It was made of the same metal as the spire, and like the spire, it was covered in intricate designs, and radiated a similar power. The being slid the lid off of the box and a bright white light shone up through, slowly taking form and creating an image within. Once the image became clear, the being began to speak once more.

"In times long forgotten, when this place was still new to the world, Spirits like myself lived along side the other creatures of this world. Nature was in balace, and all was well. But that was not to last."

The mountains turned dark and the lush green land turned sickly and brown with death and decay. There were fires burning, and ash fell from the skies in dark clouds, choking out the sunlight and smothering everything it touched. The creatures that had once lived in the forest had already fled, or had been killed by the poisons that were seeping out of the earth in toxic clouds.

"There was an erruption, and a darkness beyond all measure came out of the bowels of the earth, determined to choke all life out of the land and all that depended on it. The balance of nature had been upset, and all things suffered. At the center of this darkness was a cruel moster, a demon with unspeakable power. It was he who was causing all the pain and death to our home. But we ourselves were not without power. Being spirits, we could not take a physical form in this world without a creature to serve as a host, while the demon used such things as fire and disease to spread his power. We searched very carefully before finally choosing a host. Or rather, I should say, our hosts found us.

The image of about ten wolves appeared. All of them were varied in size and coloring, but all of them had eyes bright with intelligence, intelligence that no normal wolf carried, for all that they were clever creatures. The spirits very much like the Being that had taken Mycah's place stood before the wolves, their forms as tentative as clouds of mist. There was a flash of light, and the Spirits were gone, now merged with the wolves. And now all of those wolves were as white as the snow that fell from the sky, and they radiated with power.

"We merged with the those wolves, giving them our powers in exchange for the use of their bodies. Through them we fought the demon that was destorying our home, and eventually we won, using this."

The Being reached into the box and pulled out a stone that had been carved into the shape of a ten-pointed star. The stone itself looked as if it had been carved out of the night sky. The Being set the stone down next to the lantern, then turned back to the wolves.

"This stone possesses the power to seal the demon away once more."

((We thank you deeply for this weapon. We shall carry it to the humans as quickly as our paws can carry us.))

The Being nodded slowly. "However, I fear there is something that we cannot help you with, wolf. It is unknown what the trigger for this weapon is. That is something that must be found out on your own."

In another flash of light the Being was gone, and Mycah had returned. The old woman looked weaker than she had ever looked before, and Tainn rushed to her side to offer her his body for support, and lent her his own strength to help her recover. The other wolves crowded around her, offering her their strength as well, until she looked more like herself instead of a half-dead skeleton. Wordlessly Mycah picked up the stone and lantern and stood back up.

"Well, it seems that you all have another journey to make. You must hurry, for time is running out."

((Give us the stone, Old One. We shall take it where it is needed, and pray that we shall not have to use it.)) 


	9. Chapter Nine

Nomde sat within the darkloid lair, a sinister smile playing at his lips. Those net saviors thought they were so clever, but in truth they had no idea what he had planned. That Seer had no idea that he had allowed that hacker to scan him as he had left the hospital, and she had taken the bait. He had known that hacker was looking for him; that hacker was very clever indeed, truly worthy of her title, but not so good that she could trace him unless he let her. And the Seer had gone right to the Net Saviors with her information that Nomde had the power to make a dimensional area that could cover the entire world, just as he had wanted her to.

"Its been three days since you attacked that hospital," Shademan growled, appearing in front of Nomde. "When are we going to actually merge the net with the real world?"

"Patience, Shademan, patience. The Net Saviors are on full alert, and right now they're keeping an eye on the all of the powerplants, which is precisely what I want."

"Why, puku?" Bubbleman asked.

"To distract them, of course. I have enough power saved up for the time being to cause quite a bit of damage to the human's world before we take control of it. And at the same time I can ground those damned Net Saviors into the ground. Of course, I'll be needing some help from you, my friend."

Nomde placed a hand on Bubbleman's shoulder and smiled. Bubbleman nodded eagerly. He was ready to do anything for the demon navi.

"And of course I'll be needing your help as well, Shademan. I need you to attack someplace in the city so that I can get into the radio station undetected. That tower is a perfect conductor for my power for the current plan I have."

"Hmph. Very well. But you better not try to double cross the darkloids, or you'll regret it."

Shademan didn't wait for an answer, he just left. Nomde shook his head and sighed. Some navis just didn't grasp just how powerful he truly was. But this was no time for idle thoughts. He had a plan to set into motion.

"What do you want me to do, puku?" Bubbleman asked eagerly.

"I want you to break into the city water system and flood as much of the city as you can. With the chill that's coming all of that water will turn to ice, and it will make things very difficult for the net saviors. Very, very difficult. I trust you can handle this?"

"Yes! I can handle this! Just leave it to me!" Bubbleman left then, leaving Nomde alone. Everything was going as planned so far. Now all he needed to do was get to the radio tower and take it over, then the second phase of his plans could begin.

"Lets see how the Net Saviors deal with this problem," Nomde sneered before disappearing himself.

Three days had passed since the demon navi had attacked Netto, and he hadn't since resurfaced. Kichi wasn't certain if she should take that as a good sign or not. At the very least Netto had finally started to recover from the mountain attack, and he was getting stronger by the hour, or as strong as one with a dagger wound to the chest could be. The moment Kichi had appeared to get S-chan after visiting Neko Laika had dragged her back to the Net Police HQ to be questioned about the attack.

That had gone pretty well, and afterwards Kichi had reported to her uncle that the demon-navi might try to take over any large powersource in the city, and just what he could do with that power. That information had stunned all of them, and it wasn't just Laika who had questioned it, even Yuuichiro hadn't wanted to believe it. But a quick call to Neko had her emailing them the file, and when they looked at the data, there could be no mistake that he could cause unimaginable damage to the entire world if he wasn't stopped.

"Why am I back here again?" Kichi asked as she put her feet up on the table yet again. Laika kept pushing them off because they kept landing on the map of the city he was studying. He was getting quite annoyed, and Kichi was enjoying every moment of it.

"Well, since you won't tell us who you're getting your information from, I have to keep you around in case you get any updates pertinent to this investigation," Laika growled, giving Kichi a cold look. "And keep your feet off of the table!"

"Am I bothering you?" Kichi asked with a wide grin.

"Immensily," Laika growled, pushing Kichi's feet back onto the floor and returning his attention to the map.

The map had any large power sources highlighted in different colors to note which were considered high priorty and which were of lesser concern at the moment. Kichi wasn't ruling out any of them, and would have been checking all of them out, but she was stuck inside with Laika. Not her idea of a productive day, unless one could count getting on the white-haired net savior's nerves to be productive. She had no idea where Enzan was, but her guess was that he was in the hospital visiting Netto along with Yuuichiro. She didn't know where Meijin was either, and she had no clue as to where he might be.

Sighing loudly, Kichi turned her head towards the window, and saw that it was snowing again. The flakes were large, and looked like the kind that would be good for snowball fights. That thought made her want to go outside, but Laika would drag her right back inside if she did get up and leave. S-chan had left some time ago, finding Laika's company to be insufferable, leaving Kichi without much to do. At least with her friend here she would have had someone to talk to. Laika didn't talk at all unless Kichi did something that annoyed him, and even then all he did most of the time was glare at her. Not like it did much, Kichi wasn't some weak-minded, weak-bodied woman. She was a ranger from a place that could be very hostile, and she was very strong indeed. Laika would find that out soon enough, though.

Suddenly Kichi's body siezed up, and everything around her disappeared into darkness!

Flash of Red

A navi shaped like a vampire was standing inside jewelry store, smashing in the cases while the shop owner and some customers cowered in a corner...and some of those people were children! The navi looked at them and just laughed, then began swinging a sword at them...

"NO!" Kichi screamed, causing the image of the children to fade. Laika's head snapped up from the map to look at Kichi, his eyes narrowed in annoyance.

"What was that about?" he growled. "I am trying to work here."

"Shove it, Laika," Kichi snapped back, jumping to her feet and grabbing her coat at the same time. (S-chan?)

I'm in the truck, and I'm waiting. came the reply.

"Where are you going?" Laika demanded as Kichi moved towards the door. "You've been ordered to stay here until further notice. We have a mission to carry out."

"Correction, you have your mission, and I have a completely different one. My rules and yours are different, and I don't have the damn time to try and explain it well enough to get through your thick skull!"

By now she was outside, and the snow she had thought would have been fun to play in was actually full of a bitter cold. It felt as if the temperature had dropped quite a bit. There was ice beginning to form over the windshield and windows, but Kichi had no time to scrape it off. S-chan was waiting inside when she pulled the door open, and hopped to the side as she slid in and started the engine. It had just started when Laika pulled the passenger side door open and climbed in as well.

"What are you doing?" Kichi asked even as she slammed her foot on the gas pedal, jolting Laika into the seat before he had a chance to settle. "Scratch that, no time to waste on an answer, you're coming along for the ride!"

Snow flew everywhere, and it was a good thing that there were next to no cars on the road, because Kichi was most definitely not following the speed limit, or driving laws. In any case, she made it to the downtown area in record time, and finding the jewelry store was just as easily taken care of. Kichi scrambled out of the car, followed by S-chan and Laika, the latter still shouted at Kichi, demanding to know what was going on.

Kichi ignored the stuck-up net savior and ran into the shop, S-chan clinging to the back of her coat for all she was worth. For the most part the shop was empty, save for the owner and a mother with her two children. Kichi walked over to the mother and quickly told her that she should get her children home before the weather got any worse, and thankfully she was willing to agree without question. Laika came in just as the mother and children were leaving, and he looked rather angry.

"Kichi, what do you think-"

Laika didn't get to finish his sentence because at that very moment the dimensional area Kichi had seen in her vision appeared, and so did the navi. He looked a bit surprised to see a Net Savior there, but Kichi wasn't the least bit surprised to see the navi.

"Hide," Kichi ordered the shop owner, who had absolutley no trouble following the order.

"What's this?" the navi sneered. "A net savior and his girlfriend? I didn't anticipate seeing you here when I chose this place as a target."

"I guess you didn't anticipate a lot of things," Kichi hissed, pulling a knife out of her coat sleeve. "And I am not that ass's girlfriend!"

Kichi threw the knife at the navi, who knocked it aside with ease. He sneered at kichi, revealing a fang. "Such a pitiful weapon. Do you honestly think you can beat me with that?"

"We'll find out," Kichi replied with a grin, pulling out two more knives. She glanced over at Laika. "Are you just gonna stand there, or are you gonna help?"

"The two of you shall be easy to get rid of," the vampire navi laughed as he launched his attack at Kichi and Laika.

Both of the humans dodged, and S-chan got thrown into a corner at the same time. Kichi kept a firm grip on both her knives, but the navi had moved over to the other side of the room where Laika was. Laika was already on his feet, and this time he had grabbed a metal pole that had been part of a fence to keep people away from a case of large diamond studded jewelry. The way he held it, Kichi was very certain he would be able to use it formidably. Which gave the navi enough of a distraction for her to creep up behind him.

"Do you really expect to beat me with that," the navi sneered, striking out at Laika, who blocked it with the metal pole.

"Yes," Laika replied coldly, landing a blow to the navi's shoulder. The blow knocked the navi back just as Kichi moved foreward to strike. But she was spotted, and the navi swung around, hitting her as hard as he could and sent her flying into one of the glass cases! The case shattered under the force, sending glass everywhere. Kichi raised her head slightly before slumping over completely, knocked out by the blow.

"One down, one to go," the navi sneered, returning his attention to Laika.

"Don't count on it," Laika replied. "I'll delete you."

"Oh really?"

The navi struck again, and again Laika blocked and struck him in the shoulder. Without pause Laika struck a second time, knocking the navi off of his feet.

"Like I said, I'll delete you."

"Guess again," the navi grinned. Before Laika could finish him off the navi logged out. A second later the dimensional area vanished as well.

Laika set the pole down and turned his attention to Kichi, who was still lying on the shattered glass, bleeding where the glass had cut her. She had woken up and was shakily rising to her feet. She looked at the blood running down her hands and made a face while shaking the glass off of her body. She looked around, noting that the dimensional area was gone.

"Did the navi escape?" she asked.

"Yes," Laika replied. "Not that you did much to help."

"Bite me. I wasn't expecting him to turn like that," Kichi hissed, heading out the door. She pulled the door to her truck open and pulled out the first aid kit. Taking out some gauze she wrapped her hands up to cover the cuts. She'd take a closer look at them later.

"Tell me, how did you know there was going to be an attack here?" Laika demanded, appearing next to Kichi. S-chan was right behind him, and the skunk quickly hopped into the truck.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Kichi replied, climbing into the truck as well. "Get in now, or you walk back."

Laika walked around to the passenger side and got into the truck. "Try me," he said, pressing for an answer.

"You really want to know?"

"Yes."

"Alright then. I'm a Seer. At times I can see things before they happen."

Laika looked at Kichi, his eyes narrowed. "You're right, I don't believe you. That is by far the dumbest answer I have ever heard, and you've given some pretty dumb answered before this."

"That's it!" Kichi shouted, pulling the truck over into a snow drift very suddenly, sending Laika foreward into the dashboard. She reached over him and opened the passenger door, then pushed him out into the snow. "You can walk the rest of the way. I have had it with you and your "I'm so superior to you" attitude. You need to get over yourself!" Slamming the door shut Kichi wheeled around drove off.

"Ha! I made it in, puku!" Bubbleman cheered to himself as he finally got control of the city water systems. It had taken a bit of time, but he had done it, and with Shademan distracting the Net Saviors, he'd run into very little trouble aside from those stupid water control navis. He had deleted them with just a little bit of trouble, but now he was in control, and it was time to cause some damage.

"Time to flood the city, puku," Bubbleman laughed, opening up all of the flood control gates. Through a screen he could see water beginning to burst from pipes all over the city, spilling out into the streets and sidewalks, running over the snow and into buildings. With the temperatures getting colder by the minute with Nomde's help, the water would freeze, and the entire city would be immobilized. Having finished his job, Bubbleman retreated back to the lair to wait for his next orders.

Laika was walking back through the snow, his coat pulled up around his face, trying to keep warm. The wind was bitterly cold, and it seemed to find every opening in Laika's clothes and freeze his skin. He was very irritated, and the source of that irritation was Kichi. She was the most infuriating creature he had ever met, bar none, and she kept getting worse. And all of that nonsense about her being able to see the future was absolutely ridiculus!

"Laika-sama, I am picking up a disturbance in the area," Searchman reported from Laika's Pet.

"Where?" Laika asked, stopping to look around.

There was a pause as Searchman scanned the area, trying to pinpoint the source of the disturbance.

"Laika-sama! Its right below you!"

Even as Searchman said this, the drain Laika was standing on began to shake. Before he could jump back the water shot through the metal grate, hitting Laika full force and knocking him off of his feet! He fell backwards onto the sidewalk and hit his head hard, knocking him out instantly.

"Laika-sama! Wake up! Laika-sama!"

Laika didn't answer as water continued to rush out of the open drain, pouring out into the street and everywhere else. Pipes along along the street were doing the same, quickly flooding everything. The pressure was still pretty strong, and while no longer strong enough to move Laika's limp body, it had enough power to sweep his Pet away. All the while, the temperature continued to drop further and further.... 


	10. Chapter Ten

Pyp put another log into the small wood burning stove before turning back to the frost covered window, looking for any sign of the rest of the small gang that made up her family. She had found a person lying unconscious in the snow, and had dragged him back to the old, rundown house that she and the rest of the Sea Urchines (the name of their little gang) shared together. The rest of the gang had been gone when she'd come back, so she had pulled the young man up near the wood stove in hopes of warming him up.

While the room warmed up and while she waited for the rest of the gang to return, Pyp began to look through the man's pockets in hopes of finding something that would be able to identify him, like his Pet. She found battle chips in his pocket, but surprisingly there was no Pet! Sighing, Pyp guessed he had lost it in the snow when he'd fallen down. She'd have to go look for it after the others returned. She didn't want to leave this stranger alone when he was hurt, and she had a feeling Sketch, the gang's leader, would be happy if she left a complete stranger alone in their home either. Who knew what he'd get into if he woke up, and some of the stuff they had in the house wasn't exactly...safe in the hands of someone who didn't know what they were doing.

Through the window Pyp caught sight of a few lanterns bobbing in the air and the outlines of about ten people. The gang had returned, and were laughing and joking cheerfully despite the cold weather. They all burst into the room, loud as ever, not noticing Pyp or the stranger at first. Most of them were carrying bags of food, which gave Pyp her answer as to where they had gone. It wasn't until they had set everything down that they noticed that Pyp had brought something very interesting in from her trip.

"Pyp! What is that!?" Sketch exclaimed, pointing to the white-haired man lying on a small matress in front of the wood stove.

"Its a person, duh," Pyp replied, finding a more comfortable position to sit in. "I found him in the snow on the way home. He was unconscious and half frozen, so I couldn't just leave him there, could I?"

"No, I suppose not," Sketch replied, kneeling down to get a better look at the stranger. "He looks familiar though. I think I've seen him hanging out near the SciLabs."

"Maybe he's one of those NetSaviors?" one of the gang members suggested.

"That could be trouble if he is, Sketch," Naomi said. "Some of us don't exactly have legal jobs here."

"We can't just toss him out into the snow either," Sketch replied. "He stays for now. Pyp, did you find any identification on him?"

"No, just some battle chips. I figure his Pet must had fallen into the snow before I found him because I would have noticed it if it had fallen out on the way here. Twenty-six and I can go back to the spot and look for it," Pyp said, taking out her own Pet to look at the gold and blue navi.

"Fine. The more we know about this fella, the better off we are. Dress warm, its pretty cold out."

Pyp nodded and pulled on her heavy coat and boots, then her hat which looked like a musketeer hat, feather and all (think Puss in Boots hat those of you who have seen Shrek 2 ). A moment later she was out the door and on her way back into the downtown area of the city. The stranger was safe for now, she knew Sketch wouldn't toss him out, and he wouldn't let any of the others hurt him. There were a few who hated all cops in general, and even if the stranger turned out to be a nice person they wouldn't give him a chance. There wasn't much Pyp could do about that but hope that Sketch and his navi would be able to keep things in order.

It took about 15 minutes to reach the spot where she had found the man, and already the falling snow was covering the depression where he had been lying. Ice and slush were everywhere, since that was one of the places where the water pipes had been broken. It had taken awhile for the city officials to turn the water off, and the Net Officials and Net Police were still trying to find out what had happened. If the stranger was a cop, it was msot likely that he had been investigating the water break when he'd fallen and knocked himself out.

"You sense anything, Twenty-six?" Pyp asked as she began to dig through the snow, slush and ice.

"Its hard to say with all of this stuff in the way," the small navi replied. "Its interfering with my scanners. But I think there might be something over that way."

Pyp looked over in the direction that Twenty-six was pointing to. There was a wide line of slush and ice from the path the water had taken. Pyp walked along the path, poking into the slush every few feet when she thought she saw something, but so far her search had turned up nothing. Her hands were beginning to get numb from the cold, and her feet felt like blocks of ice when she began to think about giving up and coming back later on to try again.

"Pyp! My scanners are detecting a very low power source a few feet from where your standing! Its very distorted though."

"What? Is it the Pet?"

"It could be. Lets find it and see."

Pyp moved foreward a few feet and began digging at the snow until her hand connected with something hard. It felt like a block of ice, and when she brushed the snow away she found just that, but frozen inside was a dark green Pet. The screen was flashing, but Pyp couldn't see more than that. Moving quickly Pyp found a medium sized rock and began to chip at the ice until the Pet came free. The Pet looked undamaged, but there was no navi that she could see. Chances were though, that the Pet's internal systems were damaged, and she'd gave to get it back to Sketch to take a look at it.

"This must be the right one, the symbol flashing on the screen is the same as the one on that guy's coat," Pyp observed.

"Lets get back to the house and see if Sketch can fix it."

The Pet went into Pyp's pocket as the little girl turned and ran back the way she had come. She was eager to get out of the cold as well as to see what answers they could get from the Pet.

Kichi sat in the hospital next to Netto, watching the news with him. Every so often there was an update on the incident of the exploding water pipes, but so far nothing more was known other than that it had been cause by a virus. None of the news personel (sp?) had any idea where the virus had come from, but Netto and Kichi, and the Net Saviors of course, knew that the Dark loids had been behind it. The only question was why.

"Damned if they aren't trying to cause us more trouble than usual," Kichi cursed softly as the news switched to another weather report. There were more of those than there were updates on the broken water pipes, as there was a rather nasty looking blizzard moving closer and closer to the city.

"Huh? I don't get it?" Netto complained.

"Well, think about it. With the weather as cold as it is, and getting colder yet, breaking all those pipes would flood the streets, and the water would freeze very quickly. And having all of the streets frozen over will make it both difficult and dangerous to get around."

"Especially if they drive like you do," Netto teased.

"Shut up," Kichi snorted.

Netto sighed and leaned back in his chair. He felt so useless being stuck in the hospital. The wound had healed over, but the doctors still hadn't let him go. Netto was half tempted to just sneak out when no one was looking, but he had a feeling that Rockman would have a fit if he tried it.

Echoing his sigh, Kichi stretched and stood up, then tossed Netto the remote.

"Where are you going?" Netto asked.

"To do a bit more snooping around. Maybe I can find something your Net Saviors might have missed. See ya later."

Netto watched Kichi leave the room, then turned the tv off and got up himself. He was tired of sitting or lying in bed for such a long time. He felt like moving around for a change.

"Come on, Rockman, lets go for a walk. I need to burn off some energy."

"Alright, Netto-kun."

Netto stepped out into the hallway, and found it completely empty save for a single nurse sitting at the aid station. Given the bad weather that was coming in Netto had to wonder just how long it would stay that way. The nurse in the aid station smiled as Netto passed her but otherwise said nothing else. Netto walked down to the end of the hall, coming up to the window, which he stopped to look out of. The skies were surprisingly clear, despite the fact that the news called for heavy snow. There was frost on the window though, so there was no doubt that it was cold. Netto wiped the frost away so he could see better, but there wasn't much to see. The streets below were empty, though he could see the fresh tracks where Kichi's truck had been. Netto stood at the window for a few more minutes, then sighed and went back the way he had come.

"Netto-kun, lets go see if there's anything new on the news. If not, we can always call Enzan and find out what's going on," Rockman suggested.

Netto's face brightened at that suggestion. He'd only gotten to see Enzan for a few minutes earlier on, since Enzan had been called out to investigate the city water plant for any sign of who'd released the virus. Calling him sounded like a very good idea indeed.

"Alright. That sounds like a good plan to me."

Sketch sat at the small desk with a screwdriver in one hand and a small flashlight in the other. He had very carefully fixed the internal structure of the Pet Pyp had brought back, and he had finally finished it. The stranger was still unconscious, and while he was no longer frozen, his temperature had decided to keep rising, and now he had a fever. That wasn't to surprising, given the weather he'd collapsed in. Pyp and Naomi were looking after him at the moment, and the rest of the gang had scattered below into the old tunnel system that ran through the city to see what they could get into. One thing was certain, the tunnels were much easier to travel through than the now ice covered streets were. Sketch could only hope that the weather improved, though that didn't seem too likely at the moment.

"There, all finished," Sketch said, putting the screwdriver and flashlight down. "Now to see if the repairs worked."

Sketch turned the Pet over and turned it on, waiting with baited breath to see if it had worked. The screen flashed for a moment, then a soldier type navi appeared. The repairs had worked!

"W-who are you?!" the navi demanded. "Where is my NetOp?"

"Take it easy," Sketch said. "First things first, is that your operator?" Sketch turned the Pet towards the stranger so that the navi could see him.

"Laika-sama!" the navi cried out. "What happened to him?!"

"Pyp, the little girl with the feather in her hat, found him collapsed in a snow drift," Sketch explained. "She brought him back here where he wouldn't freeze to death, then went back to find you buried in a chunk of ice. You were then brought back and repaired by me. My name is Sketch, and the other person you see is Naomi. The rest of the gang is out an about. And what name do you go by?"

"I'm Searchman.EXE. And that is my operator, Laika. We're Net Saviors from Sharo."

"I thought so. We've seen you hanging around the SciLabs. Word of advice, though. There are a few people in the gang that don't take kindly to cops, so you might want to keep that bit a little quiet. Naomi, Pyp and I won't say anything, and right now...Laika, was it? is in no condition to being talking at all."

Searchman nodded, ever so slightly. The navi was in no place to argue as it was, so Sketch doubted he would get any trouble from him. And if he did try to cause trouble...well, Foxman would deal with him. Sketch's navi didn't take to well to troublemakers.

"Laika-sama..."

"He'll be fine," Sketch said reassuringly. "Pyp will see to that. She's been the one who's kept us all alive since she showed up on our doorstep a little over a month ago. Don't worry."

"He better be..." Searchman said softly. Not much of a threat, but there was nothing else he could say.

"He will be. You'll see." 


	11. Chapter Eleven

Nomde patrolled the servers of the closed radio station, making certain that everything was in place as he had last left it. While the Net Saviors and police had ben busy dealing with the aftermath of the flood Bubbleman had created Nomde had been busy stealing electricity from various plants all around the city. All of that energy was now ready to be put to the use he had planned for it.

The Darkloids had all gathered to view this next part of the plan, which was to begin merging the net with the real world. And while Nomde was net yet at full power, he felt that he couldn't afford to put it off any longer. Not only were the Darkloids getting restless, he had felt something else he couldn't quite identify approaching the city, and he didn't like not knowing what that power was. The Darkloids he could deal with if they chose to try and rise up against him. At his weakest he was stronger than all of them combined, but this new approaching power bothered him. Perhaps he would contact that human thief again and have her look into it, as well take care of a few other things, like that Seer. Or perhaps he would do that himself, and have the thief capture the two brats for him. That seemed like the better plan, and the more fun of the two for him.

"We're all waiting, demon," Shademan hissed as Nomde slowly began to draw the stolen energy into his body.

"Don't worry, my dear Shademan. I have no intention of making you wait any longer. The time has come to begin merging this world with the human world, and to unleash our terror upon the worthless humans!"

Allowing himself to smile in a way that caused his fangs to flash in the dim light, the demon navi began to release the now tainted energy in the form of a dark cloud that spread slowly, swallowing up everything that it touched....

Kichi yawned and stretched for a moment before sitting up on the couch. She had taken a short nap, and while she didn't feel very rested, some sleep was better than no sleep. She had patrolled the city late into the night, and now it was morning. While it wasn't sunny, the sky was lighter than it had been for the past few days without breaking cloud-cover. The temperature had stopped dropping, but unfortunately it wasn't rising at all. The snow had momentarily ceased to fall, but looking out the window showed that during her nap the white poweder had piled up quite a bit. Deep enough that her truck was half-way burried, and wouldn't be taking her anywhere.

Which is why you packed your snow gear before you fell asleep S-chan said, looking up from her food dish. You look horrible.

"I feel horrible, but that's not going to change any time soon. Not until we find and destroy that demon."

You were tossing in your sleep again. I felt your dreams, and they were dark again. The demon is taunting you.

"All the more reason to destroy him," Kichi replied, putting on her coat and snow shoes. "I'm going to check in with Neko. You coming, or staying here?"

Staying here. To cold for going outside.

"Suit yourself. Stay out of trouble./i

Kichi grabbed her two packs and her knives from the kitchen table and headed out the door. The moment she stepped outside she was hit by the bitterly cold wind. Shivering, she pulled the collar of her coat up over her nose and began trudging through the snow towards Neko's lair. The snow was deep, and the going was slow, even for Kichi, who was used to moving in deep snow.

She was about half way to Neko's lair when she felt a familiar tingling in the back of her mind. A moment later she heard the faint but unmistakable voice of Tainn, which surprised her greatly.

((Kichi?))

The deep voice echoed through Kichi's mind, as powerful as ever despite the fact that it was strained with distance. The fact that she could hear him though meant that he had to be within the city somewhere, which startled Kichi a great deal, since the wolves had never left the mountains in all the time that she had known them, and all of the time Mycah had known them.

((Kichi, can you hear me?))

(I hear you Tainn. What are you doing here? Where are you?)

((I am where the river meets the sea, on the steps of the light tower. The Pack is with me. You must come to us immediately, for we have brought you something of immense importance.))

(I understand. I'm on my way.)

Look's like Neko will have to wait, Kichi thought silently, changing her direction and heading towards the bay where the light house was. That would be an even longer walk, but there was no helping it. Tainn and the Pack wouldn't have left the mountains if it hadn't been extremely urgent to bring whatever it was they had brought with them to give to her.

It felt like ages before Kichi reached the lighthouse, and by that time she was quite numb. The wind found every gap in her clothing and stabbed her with its biting cold. She had been tired when she had left the apartment and felt even worse after pushing herself through the deep snow. If Netto had seen her he would have been scolding her for pushing herself as she was. He had little room to talk, since he did the same thing from time to time, but Kichi should have known better. Still, Tainn was indeed waiting on the steps of the lighthouse, a white sillouette against a white background, noticeable only by his blue eyes and the dark leather pouch hanging from his neck. She couldn't see any of the other wolves, but she felt their presence nearby.

((Welcome Little Sister. I bring a gift from the Spirits.))

The white wolf rose to his feet and nodded to the leather pouch that hung around his neck. This was the reason they had come down from the mountains. Kichi nodded and took the pouch from the wolf and pulled it open, pouring its contents into her hand. Out of the pouch fell a small crystal shaped like a ten-pointed star that looked as if it had been carved out of the night sky. Around it Kichi could sense a faint but powerful aura.

"What is it?" Kichi asked.

((The Spirits say it is a weapon to seal away the demon. However, They do not know how to trigger it. Even They do not know everything.))

"I see. But any weapon is better than no weapon. I'm sure we'll be able to figure it out-"

The words stopped suddenly as all of the breath rushed out of Kichi's body. She fell to her knees, barely away of the wolve's fearful howls as the world around her spun and blurred together! Suddenly she was not in her body, but high above the city, flying in the form of a kestrel.

What a horrible time for an out-of-body-vision! Kichi cursed as she circled in the cold air. This was a dangerous thing in such cold weather, and if she didn't get back to her body soon she could very well die.... Tainn! Tainn! Call my spirit back! Kichi cried to the wolf. But he didn't answer.

"Whatever is the matter, Seer?" A dark voice hissed somewhere around Kichi, though she could not see its source around her. All she could see were dark clouds. "What's wrong? Can't get back to your body?"

The demon. It was the demon that was causing this. It was the demon that had forced her into the Spirit Realm.

Come out and show yourself! Kichi screeched in challenge!

"Oh, but if I did that you would attack me, and that would break the spell. And I am enjoying this far to much. Tell me, is it getting colder? How long do you think it will take before your body dies and you become trapped here forever?"

Foul demon! Evil beast! Kichi spat. This is pointless!

"Quite the contrary," replied the demon. "Pain, fear, confusion and suffering only make me stronger, and you are giving off all of those things right now. And very soon, I shall have your cousin and his lover in the same position...Only their death is going to be much more painful."

NO!

Enraged, Kichi struck out at the air, but her claws hit nothing. Only laughter greeted her vain attempts.

"Farewell, Seer. Enjoy your new form, since nothing those powerless furballs you call wolves will be able to save you. I'll make sure to tell Netto that you send your love."

Come back demon! Fight me!

But there was no reply. If falcons could cry Kichi could have, but all she could do was cirlce on the bitter winds as the thin thread that held her to her body grew weaker and weaker... 


	12. Chapter Twelve

Netto woke up suddenly, feeling very disoriented and very alarmed. He had been plagued by a nightmare of some sort, only now that he was awake he couldn't really remember what it had been about, only that it had somehow involved his cousin. Shaking his head to clear it Netto peered over at the clock on the wall and saw that it was close to noon. It certainly didn't look like it, not with the sky covered in such dark clouds. There was no snow falling that the boy could see, which wasn't an entirely bad thing. The city had more than enough snow at the moment.

"Are you alright, Netto-kun? You were tossing in your sleep pretty badly," Rockman said, his tone worried.

"I'm fine, I think," Netto replied softly. "Just had another bad dream. I seem to be having a lot of those lately."

"I don't think that's surprising, considering what you went through.... Netto-kun! What are you doing?!" the blue navi shouted as Netto flung the blankets on the floor and jumped out of the bed. He went over to the other chair where the clothes his mother had brought him were and quickly changed into them.

Again Rockman asked, "What are you doing, Netto-kun?!"

"Getting out of here," Netto replied. "I can't sit around anymore doing absolutely nothing. Don't you want to help Enzan and Blues?"

"Well, yes, but..."

"But what? I'm as healed as I'll ever get in this place, and you know it. So I'm going, and I'm asking you not to try and stop me."

Rockman looked very unsure. While he could understand Netto's desire to actually do something instead of lying in the hospital he was torn between keeping Netto safe and going to fight the Dark Loids. Somehow though he doubted that he was going to be able to persuade his brother to stay in the hospital, so he would just have to go along with it and try to keep Netto from getting into to much trouble.

"Alright, Netto-kun. I won't try to stop you. But you have to promise that you'll leave the fighting to the other Net Saviors if things get to rough, alright?"

"You worry too much, Rockman," Netto snorted, pulling his coat on. Kichi had left it in the room in case the power had gone out due to the storms.

"Promise me, Netto, or I'll tell the doctors your trying to leave!"

"Okay! Okay! I promise!"

Rockman sighed as Netto picked up his Pet and placed it in its holder. Making sure that he had his battle chips as well, Netto peered out into the hall to make sure that none of the nurses were around before slipping out of the room. The elevators were down the hall, just past the nurses' station, but luck was with them it seemed, as none of the nurses were there at the moment. Hurrying down the hall before his luck ran out Netto reached the elevators without incident and pushed the button, then waited for the elevator to arrive.

After what seemed an unusually long wait, the doors finally opened and Netto jumped inside, quickly hitting the down button and closing the doors. The elevator began to go down, but then luck seemed to run out on them. Without warning the elevator lurched to a sudden stop, sending Netto to the floor. Groaning, the boy sat up and rubbed his head where it had hit the ground.

"Netto-kun! Are you okay?" Rockman asked.

"Yeah, just bumped my head. I think the elevator is stuck."

"I think the power just went out all over the hospital."

Netto groaned and rose to his feet. The emergency lights had come on in the elevator, but the elevator itself was completely stuck. The only way out was through the emergency door in the elevator ceiling. The strain on his arms was a bit painful, and he felt it all the way down through his chest, but Netto managed to pull himself through the emergency door and out into the elevator shaft. The shaft was dimly lit by emergency lights, so at least Netto wouldn't walk into the walls.

"Netto-kun, we should wait in the elevator until the power returns," Rockman said sternly. "You'll hurt yourself trying to climb up the shaft."

"Don't be silly, Rockman. I'm fine, and besides, it could be hours before the power comes back on, and that would be as pointless as me staying in my room to begin with."

"If we had stayed in the room we wouldn't be stuck in the elevator shaft."

Netto growled and refused to reply. Instead he walked across the elevator to the small ladder that ran up the side of the shaft, all the way to the top and began to climb. Rockman sighed, knowing he wouldn't be able to get his brother to listen to him.

The climb was a bit of a long one, but eventually they reached the top of the shaft, where there was a door to the roof. Netto opened it, bracing himself agains the cold wind that hit him as soon as he did so. The snow crunched beneath his shoes, and the overcast sky was growing steadly darker. Having gotten out of the shaft, Netto headed towards the emergency stairwell so that he could get down to the ground and go find Enzan.

The moment Netto opened the door though, something hard connected with his stomach, knocking the air out of him and sending him too his knees! As he gasped for breath he looked up to see a woman dressed in winter gear staring down at him coldly. In one hand she held a Pet, in the other a gun.

"So this is the brat that that navi wants? Looks rather pathetic to me. You're certainly more trouble than you're worth, kid. Get up!"

"W-who are you?" Netto asked, groaning as he got to his feet.

"That's none of your concern. Just be glad that my boss wants you alive."

"Your boss can go to hell!" Netto shouted, charging the woman, trying to get past her.

"Stupid brat!" the woman growled, dropping her Pet to grab Netto and pull him back. The boy stuggled to break away, so the woman simply hit him over the head with her gun, knocking him out cold.

"Netto-kun! Netto-kun! Wake up!" Rockman shouted, trying to wake his brother up, but to no avail.

The woman picked up her own Pet and put in back in its holder, then fished Netto's Pet out of its holder. The look she gave Rockman was one of both scorn and amusement.

"Sorry, but my boss only wants the brat, which makes you worthless. So its time to say good-bye to your NetOp, because its the last time you'll see him...ever."

Ignoring Rockman's angry shouts, the woman put her gun up to the Pet and pulled the trigger.

Laika slowly came awake, becoming aware of his surroundings bit by bit. His entire body ached so bad that he didn't even want to consider moving. So he just layed where he was and listened to the sounds around him, which was mainly the sounds of footsteps coming and going around him.

It was warm, wherever he was, though Laika felt that it was a bit too warm. He heard footsteps coming closer to him, then felt something cool being pressed against his forehead. He groaned and tried to roll over onto his side, but failed in doing so.

"Hey, you're awake?" a young voice asked. "Here, try to drink some of this tea."

A cup was held to Laika's lip as a stong arm lifted his head up so that he didn't choke. The tea was luke warm, and tasted bitter, but surprisingly it eased the pain in Laika's body enough that he could open his eyes. For a moment his vision was blurry, but when his sight came into focus he found himself looking up at a young girl with spikey black hair and dark eyes. She smiled when she saw that his eyes were open.

"Good, the tea helped. Searchman will be glad to know you're awake," the girl said.

"W-who?" Laika asked as the girl laid his head back down on a pillow. "Who is that?"

The girl looked at Laika, half-confused, half-alarmed. She looked over at a small computer monitor where a soldier-like navi was listening. His expression was both startled and worried. Laika looked over at the navi, but there was no spark of recognition. Like everything else, he didn't remember any of it, if he had ever known it at all.

"Tell me," the girl said softly, "do you know what your name is?"

"Laika. What's yours?"

"Pyp. Its short for Pyper, but no one ever calls me that. So, where are you from, Laika?"

Laika was silent for a moment as he tried to search his memory, but after a few minutes, he came up with nothing. He had no idea where he was from, like just about everything else, it was a blank.

"I have no idea..." He said, his voice trailing off. "I feel really tired, though..."

"Oh, go ahead and go to sleep then. You were in pretty bad shape when we found you."

There was no reply from Laika, he had already fallen back to sleep. Sighing, Pyp looked over to see if there was anything she could do to help Searchman, but he had already vanished into the Net. Foxman would do his best to help him out though, so there wasn't much for Pyp to worry about there. She just worried about Laika instead. It was hard not having any memories other than the name you had. Pyp knew this all to well, because when she had showed up on Sketch's doorstep a month earlier the only thing she could remember was her own name, and that just barely.

"So, how is he?" Sketch asked, walking into the room.

"He has amnesia," Pyp said. "He doesn't remember anything but his name. What are we gonna do, Sketch?"

"Nothing, at the moment. He isn't strong enough to be moving anywhere yet, and there's to much snow anyways. And I have a strong feeling that something bad is about to happen, so for now its best to just stay put, and do what we can for him. What's his navi have to say?"

"Searchman disappeared into the Net before I could talk to him, but I think Foxman can handle him. Foxman can handle just about anyone."

Sketch nodded and went back to his business of fixing another computer, and left Pyp to keep watch over the injured Laika.

Anuzu yelped and whined as Tainn pushed against Kichi's body, trying vainly to wake their human friend up. They had felt something wrong descend over the area for just a brief moment, and Kichi had collapsed in that time. The feeling had passed, but Kichi had not woken up, and nothing the wolves were doing was helping.

((We need to get help, Tainn!)) Anuzu said. ((We need a human to help her!))

((Then go find one!)) Tainn ordered. ((Go quickly!))

The half-wolf nodded her head and took off through the snow, casting her nose and ears for any signs of humans nearby. It didn't take long before she was out of sight of the rest of the Pack and in the forest surrounding the lighthouse. The snow wasn't as deep here, and she was able to run much faster, but still her senses didn't pick up any signs of humans.

She was afraid that she wouldn't find any at all and that Kichi would die of the cold when her nose picked up the scent of a fire close by, and fire meant people. Changing her direction Anuzu ran towards the smell of the smoke.

Coming to the edge of a clearing Anuzu spotted flames dancing in the air, and standing around the fire two humans, one male, one female. The man was holding a computer and typing something while the woman held a Pet. Neither of them, while Anuzu sensed that they were close to nature, had a receptive mind to which she could speak, which would make things difficult. Oh well, no one had said getting the help to understand her would be easy, which just meant she would have to use other methods of getting them to follow her. The simplest of which was...

Hesitating for only a moment, Anuzu charged out of the trees and knocked the woman over, grabbed her Pet and darted back into the woods, pausing at the tree-line to look back at them. The woman protested loudly and got to her feet, and with the man came running after the half-wolf, which was exactly what Anuzu wanted. She made sure to stay out of their reach, but within sight so that she didn't loose them. The Spirits only knew where she'd find another human to help.

((Brothers! Sisters! Hide, the humans are coming!))

Anuzu dashed into the field where Kichi lay unconscious, and dropped the stolen pet on top of her body, then barked loudly to get the human's attentions. She looked enough like a dog that with the collar Kichi had made her wear she would just look like Kichi's pet instead of a wild animal. None of the other wolves were around, though Tainn was most likely very close by, hidden by the snow he shared color with.

"Daisuke-kun! There's someone lying in the snow!" the woman shouted, kneeling down next to Kichi.

The man, Daisuke, looked down at the woman, just as alarmed as she. "Saloma, I know her. She's helped me a few times when I was in the mountains. Her name is Kichi."

Daisuke placed his head near her mouth to see if she was breathing. She was, but the breaths were shallow. Her lips had already begun to turn blue from the cold, and her body was shivering as well. Saloma took her coat off and placed it over Kichi to try and warm her up. Then she picked up her Pet and said, "Woodman, call for an ambulance."

"Kichi? Kichi, wake up," Daisuke said, shaking her shoulder very gently. "Kichi, can you hear me?"

Kichi had been flying around randomly, unable to ido anything and was feeling quite angry about it as well. She was more than ready to tear something apart if she could actually touch it, but that had not been in her luck. It was then that she had felt a very faint tug from somewhere below her. It was an odd feeling, one that drew her downwards, though she couldn't see where she was going. The further down she went the stronger the tugging became, though, and the further she went the warmer she began to feel.

"Kichi? Kichi, can you hear me?" a familiar voice whispered in the air around her. It was Daisuke!

"I'm here, Daisuke! I'm here!" Kichi screamed back, following the sound of his voice and the tugging sensation, feeling stronger by the second. Then she was in sight of her body, and being able to see it, she was able to return to it.../i

"...Daisuke?" Kichi asked softly, the words barely escaping her trembling lips as her eyes fluttered open. "W-what are you doing here?"

((You're awake! The human did it!)) Anuzu shouted joyfully, licking Kichi's face. ((I am glad. We are all glad!))

"Damn them!" Nomde roared as he felt his spell being broken. The Seer had returned to her body, and the same trick would not work on her twice. Cursed humans, they always interfered with his plans. He would simply have to take his anger out on the boy when Kyan brought him in. That would make the Seer very sorry indeed.... 


	13. Chapter Thirteen

Enzan had come into the hospital to find it in chaos. From one of the nurses he found out that the power had gone off, and so far they had only been able to restore the hospital to half-power, and that was with all of the emergency generators running. Enzan found this strange, and plugged Blues into the hospital's mainframe to see if he could find out what had happened. He was also going to look for Rockman, since both of them had a feeling Rockman would have gone looking for the source of the problem as well.

And while his navi looked through the computers, Enzan went to check on Netto. Only to find the room dark and completely empty! Enzan took a deep breath to keep himself calm, then went back out into the hall. Knowing Netto, the most likely thing was that the power had gone out, and he had gone to the aid's station to find out what was happening. He had probably gotten pushed into a corner in all the chaos and was just waiting for things to calm down...

And maybe pigs will fly over the moon Enzan though irritably. The reason he had left his current investigation and come to the hospital was because he'd had a nagging feeling that something was wrong, and it wouldn't go away. Somehow he knew that Netto was in trouble, and the sooner he found the missing boy, the better.

"Blues, any luck?" Enzan asked, scanning the hall for any signs of Netto. The nurses and doctors were all to busy trying to restore order to help him any. Several of them had already told him to stay out of the way when he had tried to ask them if they had seen Netto.

"None, Enzan-sama," Blues said with a sigh. "And there is no sign that Rockman has been here within the last hour or so. One of the security programs did pick up a disturbance on the roof, but it has yet to be checked out.."

"Then we'll go check it out," Enzan snapped. "I couldn't find Netto anywhere in here, and something does not feel right."

"I didn't think so either, Enzan-sama."

Enzan nodded, very slightly, and found the stairwell that led up to the roof. When he got to the top he found the door open, which was very odd. There were footprints in the snow, one set small, the other slightly larger. And to one side there was an impression in the snow that looked like a body...

"Enzan-sama! Look, up ahead! There's something in the snow!" Blues shouted, alerting Enzan to an object half-hidden in the snow. He walked over to the object and picked it up, and felt a chill of fear and dread run through his body. It was Netto's Pet, and it had been severely damaged by what looked like a single gunshot.

"E-Enzan-sama. Is Rockman...?" Blues stammered, unable to finish the sentence.

"I don't know, Blues. Call Yuuichiro. Now. If Netto's Pet is here, then someone has taken Netto, and chances are that navi has something to do with it."

Even as he had given the order Enzan felt himself beginning to shake. He felt very cold, and it had nothing to do with the weather. There was no way he could tell if Rockman was alive, and even if he was he would be severely damaged. Netto had been taken, that was the only explanation Enzan could give for finding his Pet on the roof. Whether or not he was still alive... Enzan shuddered. He refused to think that his love could be dead. It would only send him into a panic, and that would not help anyone, especially Netto.

"Enzan-sama, Hikari-hikase is on his way, as are the NetPolice."

"Thank you, Blues."

Netto, Enzan thought silently as he looked up at the overcast sky. Please be alright.

Kyan walked into the radio station, carrying to boy over her shoulder. He was a heavy one for his size, that was for sure. Still, knocking him out was much easier than trying to carry him inside, since stuggling would have made things very difficult. He had been awfully still when she had picked him up to carry him out of the hospital, though she didn't think she had hit him that hard. He was still breathing, so he wasn't dead. Maybe he was just a deep sleeper. Not that Kyan cared in the least.

Unceremoniously Kyan dropped the boy onto the floor in one of the upper office rooms, causing the dark fog that had covered the room to swirl around before settling again. Standing in the center of the room was the demon navi, a dark shape in the dark fog, the only thing truly visible being his red eyes. He creeped Kyan out, but since she was being paid, she would ignore the feeling.

"Here's the boy," Kyan grunted. "Had to knock him out to get him here, though."

"That's fine. I shall have him awake soon enough. Here is your payment. I trust you know well enough to keep quiet about this."

"Of couse."

"Good. Then get out."

That was something Kyan didn't need to be told twice to do. She turned and left the boy with the navi, closed the door behind her and left the building without a second thought. Once she was gone, Nomde turned his full attention to the boy sprawled out in front of him. He would be waking up very soon and he would be finding himself in a world of pain and torment of more than one kind.

A movement in the boy's hand showed that he was coming to, and Nomde waited for the boy to open his eyes, which were filled with a great deal of pain already. There was also an air of loss? Maybe confusions, perhaps both. But both were laden with such pain that it filled Nomde with glee. Pain gave him strength, and the boy was feeding him energy already without even knowing that he was doing so. That was all the better for Nomde, in the long run.

Nor did he sense that annoying bond that had caused him so much trouble while he'd been draining energy to keep himself alive. Or rather, he couldn't sense it without trying hard to sense it. If the navi was alive, he certainly wasn't going to be in any position to come after his operator.

"R-Rockman?" Netto called out softly, his voice betraying his fear.

"Rockman isn't here," Nomde growled like a cat about to pounce. "I'm the only one here at the moment. And you aren't going anywhere."

"YOU!" Netto shouted, staggering to his feet. "You're the one that attacked me and Enzan in the hospital!"

Nomde grinned evilly. "Oh, I've been doing far more than that, you stupid brat. I've been slowly wittling down the police and Net Saviors until they've become exhausted and are to weak to stop me. Even now the dark loids are out making sure that none of them find you until I am ready. Which shall be soon."

Netto snorted and took a fighting stance. The idea that the boy was going to try to fight him was amusing to say the least. Still, he had a bit of anger to take out on the brat due to the Seer's escape, so he was going to get a sound thrashing either way.

"Oh, the brat wants to fight?" Nomde asked with a sneer. "Take your best shot then, boy. I'll show you just how much stronger I am."

Netto didn't have to be asked twice. he charged at the navi with fists flying, going at Nomde with everything he had...Only to be soundly knocked aside by a single flick of Nomde's wrist. The blow sent Netto flying into the wall, and before he could even begin to recover Nomde was in front of Netto, driving his knee into Netto's chest and knocking all of the wind out of the boy. Netto gasped for air even as Nomde lifted him off of the ground by his shirt collar, holding him up so that Netto could see into his eyes.

"That was for your cousin getting away from me. Not that I won't get her sooner or later. Now the real fun begins."

"W-what are you talking about?" Netto gasped, forcing air back into his lungs.

"Oh, you'll see," Nomde growled darkly, causing Netto to shudder. He did not like what that tone implied.

Nomde carried a still gasping Netto through the rooms of the empty radio station, into a large room full of computer monitors and several machines. In the center, connected to all of those machines by several large wires was what looked like a giant glass tube with a metal base and top, the top being open at the moment. There was also another navi in the room, Bubbleman.

"Everything is ready, puku," Bubbleman said, looking up at Nomde.

"Very good. Thank you, my friend. Now would you do me one more favor and make sure that no one comes into this area? I would greatly appreciate it."

"Of course, puku!" Bubbleman said, rather cheerfully.

Netto could only stare in disbelief as the blue navi left the room. How could he be in the real world without a dimensional area? Nomde he could have understood, as he assumed that was what that data contained that he'd had Enzan unlock. But how did Bubbleman get into the real world? As if he was reading Netto's mind, Nomde answered that question.

"Any navi serving me may come into this world in this building, because I have merged it with the Net. And very soon, I shall have merged the entire net with this world, and I shall rule both of them! And that, little human, is why I need you."

"Me?" Netto squeaked, sounding very frightened. "Why?"

"For the same reason I needed you before," Nomde purred. "For power. I certainly can't merge both worlds on the power I have, it would drain me of everything. On the flip side, if I hooked myself up to a powersource and filtered it through to the net, I would overload myself, and it would destroy me that way, since I am, rather annoyingly, more of a navi than I wish. Being made up of data is very inconvenient. You, on the other hand, are flesh and blood, and happen to be a very, very good source of power. It was so fortunate that Aleka was reborn into your body. It saved me a great deal of trouble."

Before Netto could say anything to that, Nomde tossed Netto into the glass tube and slid the top shut, locking it tightly. The demon-navi grinned at the stunned Netto and went over to one of the machines that looked like it might be a control pannel. He flipped a few of the switching, and Netto heard something begin to hum. He also saw what looked like sparks forming at the top of the glass tube! Panicked, Netto began to pound on the glass, but it held strong against his fists.

"Oh, I mustn't forget this," Nomde grinned, moving in front of Netto. He held out his hand to reveal an dark orb that pulsed menacingly. It radiated such evil that Netto reacted by pushing himself as far away from it as he could, though he couldn't move to far. "And I shall take the liberty to tell you that this shall hurt quite a bit. I'm looking forward to it, actually."

With a growl Nomde plunged his hand through the glass, shocking Netto with the fact that it went through without so much as cracking it! But Netto had no time to think on that, because the hand had not only gone through the glass, it had gone through him as well! He shrieked with pain as he felt something begin to burn inside of him, and as Nomde withdrew his hand, Netto could see, just barely, that the orb was gone.

That was all the time he had to think, because in the next second the sparks at the top of the glass tube began to connect with his body and began to react to whatever it was that the demon had placed inside of him. Pain drove any thoughts he had out of his mind, and he could see nothing but darkness growing around him! His screams were shattering, but if anything they only made the pain worse. Netto wanted desperately to drop to his knees and curl up into a ball, but he was frozen in place, unable to move.

"Excellent," he heard a dark voice murmur in his ears. "Now the world shall be mine." 


	14. Chapter Fourteen

Laika and Pyp trudged through the snow, the small girl leading the net savior down a number of back roads and alley ways. Laika had recovered as much as he was going to, and since he couldn't remember anything about himself other than his name, Sketch and the others had decided to keep Laika with them for the time being. So Laika had, to some extent, become Pyp's shadow.

"What exactly are we looking for?" Laika asked as they turned down yet another narrow street. It hadn't taken long for him to become thoroughly lost, though Pyp seemed to know exactly where she was.

"I think we'll know it when we see it," Pyp replied, looking down at her Pet. "After all, Naomi was pretty vague with her information."

Laika nodded slightly. Naomi had come running into the room from down below, shouting that something was setting off alarms in the middle of Downtown Densan City, and it was spreading outwards at a decent speed. The hacker estimated that it would be an hour or so before whatever it was reached their area. Not wanting to be caught off guard, Sketch had sent teams out to the "infected" area to see if they could find out just what the something was. Hence the reason Laika and Pyp were outside and in the middle of the city.

"Pyp, is it just me, or did it get a lot darker all of a sudden.

Pyp looked up and looked around. "I think you're right. And something feels...off about this place."

"Laika-sama, my sensors have detected something up ahead," Searchman reported, pulling up a map onto the screen of Laika's Pet. The map showed something moving towards them, but whatever it was had no definite shape that Laika could see.

"What is that?!" Pyp exclaimed suddenly, pointing to the end of the street.

Her exclamation caught Laika's attention, and his eyes were drawn to the direction she was pointing in. He didn't like what he saw. It looked like black fog, but the way it moved was very unnerving. Like a wave it rose up into the sky, hovered there for a moment, then slowly came back down, moving outward a few feet each time it moved. Inside of the area covered with fog, he could see several soemthings moving, but what exactly they were, he couldn't tell.

"Well, we found what's setting off those alarms," Laika said. "Now what?"

Rockman was in hurt and confused. He remembered that woman shooting his Pet, which should have, by all accounts, have destroyed him. But he wasn't deleted, or else he wouldn't be thinking these thoughts right now. He tried to call out to Netto, but their bond was stretched to its utmost limit, and he was unable to reach his brother. He could sense a bit of pain trickling down through their link, but what its cause was, the navi couldn't say. All he knew was that that woman had said someone had wanted Netto.

Clenching his fists, Rockman opened his eyes and tried to force himself into a sitting position. He got about half way up when his strength abandonned him, and gravity took over and he fell back against the ground. Feeling dazed, Rockman stared up at the ceiling, which was covered in a dark mist. Actually, as he turned his head to look on either side of him, he saw that the walls were covered in the same mist. There were several machines scattered around the room, most of which looked like computers...That didn't make sense. Why would there be computers in the net? And why was there dark fog covering everything? Where was he?

He's awake! He's awake! a tiny voice shouted excitedly. Only Rockman didn't actually hear the voice with his ears, he 'heard' it in his mind. What was going on?

"Ah, awake I see," a more human-sounding voice said. "That's good. I was worried about you for awhile, and so was S-chan."

Rockman looked around, trying to see who was talking. He was very confused now. S-chan was the name of Kichi's skunk. How could she be in the net? Quite suddenly he found himself staring at a human girl with brown eyes and hair, and sitting on her shoulder was none other than S-chan!

"What's going on?!" Rockman exclaimed, trying again to sit up. "How did you two get into the net?"

The girl shook her head. "Its the other way around, actually, Rockman. You're in the real world. A lot of navis have been appearing, along with viruses, and actual parts of the net. Its like the two worlds are merging where ever this fog touches. I know that that demon-navi is behind this, but I haven't been able to pinpoint where he is. Then you showed up quite suddenly, looking like you've been in one hell of a fight, and without Netto nonetheless. Well, S-chan was worried, and so was I, because that is most unusual."

Rockman nodded, finally managing to sit up. "Netto was kidnapped by some woman. She knocked him out, then destroyed my Pet. I have no idea what happened to Netto." Rockman's tone was very concerned. He had a strong feeling that that woman had taken his brother to that demon-navi, and he was very worried for his brother if that suspicion was true.

"Don't worry. I'm gonna help you find Netto. I need to find Kichi as well, since she was supposed to show up earlier, and never did. Knowing her, she's into something, and she might have a clue as to where your NetOp is. I'm Neko, by the way."

"You're the one whose been giving Kichi her information?"

"You catch on quick. That's right, me and some good friends of mine, all of us being hackers. We have quite a network for a bunch of people not directly involved with any crime syndicates." Neko grinned. "Just keep a watch out for viruses while you recover your strength, and I'll begin searching for Netto."

"Thank you, Neko."

Neko smiled and nodded. "Not a problem." 


	15. Chapter Fifteen

A more thorough search of the hospital and close questioning of the staff brought up no new clues about Netto's whereabouts. Enzan had been questioned just as carefully while Yuuichiro examined Netto's Pet. Yuuichiro was just as worried about his son as Enzan was, that could be seen clearly in the scientist's expression. But the only way they were going to get any clues about what happened to Netto was to find Rockman, if he had survived. That was, perhaps, the only reason Yuuichiro wasn't in a panic at the moment.

Enzan was certainly getting near that point, though. He was beginning to feel an odd, sharp pain in his chest that had nothing to do with his own body, he was sure of that. Somehow he knew that it was somehow connected to Netto, and if the pain he was feeling was bad, he couldn't begin to imagine what Netto was going through. He didn't want to think about it, or the calm mask he had put on would break in a second.

"Any luck?" Enzan asked after awhile. The Net Police had spread their search out to the area surrounding the hospital, but Enzan had been told to stay with Yuuichiro.

"I've been able to analyze the Pet's data log, and from what I can tell, Rockman escaped into the net just before the Pet was destroyed," Yuuichiro said, with a hint of relief in his tone. "So Rockman is somewhere on the net. I fear he may be damaged though, so its imperative that we find him as quickly as possible."

"So that we can find Netto."

"Exactly."

"I'll have Blues start looking, then."

Yuuichiro nodded and smiled wanly. "Thank you, Enzan."

"Just for the record, I told you this was a bad idea!" Laika growled as he and Pyp ran from a pack of Garuu that had caught sight of them. Beside him Pyp just managed a grin as she ran, too out of breath to actually speak. The snow made running difficult, but at least the Garuu were having just as much trouble. Of course, they had four feet instead of two, and were slowly gaining on their human prey.

"Okay, this is pointless," Pyp gasped as she stopped and turned to face the pack of Garuu.

"Pyp, what are you going?!" Laika cried as he skidded to a stop as well, turning just in time to see Pyp throw something at the viruses, something that looked like it had a fuse...

The viruses paused for a moment to look at the object that Pyp had thrown. That was more than enough time for the pack of firecrackers, for that was what Pyp had thrown, to explode, deleting most of the viruses, and scaring the few remaining ones away.

"You couldn't do that earlier?" Laika asked, slowly regaining his breath.

"Uh..I forgot that I had those in my bag. I got a bunch of stuff like that actually. Comes in handy when Sketch needs someone to create a distraction. Looks like this stuff comes in handy for fighting viruses too," Pyp replied with a grin as her breathing returned to normal.

"That's good for now, but what happens when you run out of firecrackers?" Laika growled.

"Improvise?" Pyp offered with a giggle. "I'll think about that when it happens. What I want to know is where we should go from here."

"Don't look at me for directions, I have no idea where we are," Laika replied.

The area they were standing in was nothing more than a narrow street lined with dull, snow covered buildings that all looked the same. None of the buildings had windows, and all the doors were covered with sheets of metal. They looked like warehouses.

"None of this looks familiar to me, either, and I know most of the city pretty well. I'll plug Twenty-six into one of those buildings' computers and see if she can't get some directions."

Laika nodded, willing to go along with that plan. Pyp handed him a pack of firecrackers and a lighter, just in case another pack of viruses showed up while she was figuring out where they were. Brushing the snow off of the port on the I.D. terminal, Pyp quickly plugged her Pet into in.

"Hey!" Pyp cried with alarm. "Twenty-six's signal disappeared!"

"What?" Laika exclaimed, dropping the firecrackers into the snow. "Move over. Searchman, see if you can't find out where she went."

"Yes, Laika-sama."

Laika plugged his Pet into the port as well, but no sooner than he had done so, Searchman's signal vanished as well! At the same moment a menacing growl behind them alerted Pyp and Laika to the fact that the remaining Garuu were back, and the two humans had nowhere to run this time.

Just as the Garuu lunged at Laika and Pyp two shots hit the viruses, deleting them while sending up a flurry of snow. Before the other viruses could escape they were deleted as well. When the snow resettled the viruses were gone, and standing in their place was Searchman and Twenty-six!

Nomde watched Netto for a few minutes, then strode out of the room with a pleased smile on his face. So far everything was going very well. His darkness was spreading across the city, and where ever his shadow touched the net and the real world were beginning to merge. Very soon the humans would know just who was the ruler over all things!

"Nomde-sama, a Net Savior has been spotted near the station, puku," Bubbleman said, suddenly appearing.

"Enzan?" Nomde demanded, feeling a very slight pang of fear.

Bubbleman shook his head. "The Sharro Net Savior, Laika, puku. There's someone else with him, puku. I don't know who it is though, puku."

"Just get rid of them," Nomde said, waving his hand absently. As long as it wasn't Enzan. That he'd even felt that tiny pang of fear irritated him greatly. Why should he fear a simple human, especially when he had Netto in his control?

Enzan wouldn't dare come after him for fear that Nomde would kill Netto. Not that Nomde didn't already plan to, just not quite yet. Still...It was better to be safe than sorry. He had no intention of going to Enzan, though. If he still felt fear from the thought of that human, then chances were there was a reason for that fear, and Nomde was not going to risk his neck when he could get someone else to do it instead. It was time to put in another call to his favorite mercenary. 


	16. Chapter Sixteen

Kichi was glad to be back in her truck and on her way back into the city. Tainn and the others were crowded into the back of the truck, for they had insisted on going with her. They had some unfinished business to settle with the demon-navi, and they wanted to help get rid of him. Kichi was glad for the help, because she knew they were going to need all of the help they could get.

Saloma and Daisuke had been surprised when the wolves had appeared seemingly out of nowhere, and were equally surprised when Kichi told them they were her close friends. There had been no room in the truck for the two humans, but Daisuke had told her they would be heading into the city as well to do what they could. Kichi had warned them to be careful, and had then left.

((Kichi! Look at the city!)) Anuzu exclaimed as they reached the top of a hill that overlooked the city.

The sight was sickening. The entire city was covered in a writhing veil of black mist, and it was spreading outwards at a rapid rate! Kichi felt her heart drop into her stomach. The feeling over evil that radiated from that dark mist was unmistakably that of the demon navi, and it meant that he had found a power source large enough to use to create his own dimensional area. And it also meant with near certainty that he had Netto.

((Don't loose hope, Kichi)) Tainn growled. ((He hasn't beaten us yet. This battle hasn't yet begun.))

Brave words, but Kichi could sense the fear in Tainn's voice. Only a fool wouldn't be scared at the sight of that writhing black mass. But there was no choice, and Kichi was not about to leave Netto in that demon's hands. Biting back the urge to scream a battle cry, Kichi pushed down on the gas pedal and drove straight into the dark fog.

Kyan wove her way through the crowded hospital halls, trying to get to the upper levels where her target was. Shortly after she had left the radio station the navi had contacted her again, ordering her to kill another boy, Ijuuin Enzan. Why the navi wanted this boy dead Kichi hadn't asked, not when he'd offered her a very spectacular amount of money to do so. And while there were police officers scattered throughout the hospital Kyan wasn't particularly worried, not when she could be anyone's family member come to check on their sick granny or sibling. And if she was stopped by an officer that was just what she was going to tell them.

The navi had said that the boy would be on the top floor of the hospital along with Dr. Hikari and any other number of officers. Kyan didn't mind, it wouldn't have been the first time she had taken out an officer, mercenary that she was. As long as she got the kid and she got out alive she'd get paid, and as long as she got paid she'd be happy.

The power had been restored to the hospital not to long ago, and the elevators were working again. She took the elevator instead of the stairwell she had used to get to the roof, because the police would still be scouring it, looking for any clues as to who had taken the Hikari boy. Kyan wasn't stupid enough to think they hadn't found him missing yet, and of course the Net Saviors would be looking for one of their own who went missing from a hospital. Why else would Dr. Hikari be here in the hospital rather than at the Scilabs trying to figure out what that dark fog was that was bringing viruses and navis into this world?

The elevator came to a stop and Kyan quickly got out and darted into a room before she was spotted by everyone. Up here it would be a bit harder to blend in dressed as she was, since the only people up here were the doctors, the patients in their rooms, and the few officers and scientists that were with Enzan and Dr. Hikari. She had no intention of trying to pass as a patient, it would never work. Trying to pass as a scientist or an officer was out of the question, they would know she wasn't with either group. So her best option was to disguise herself as a nurse. It would make hiding her gun a bit difficult, but Kyan wasn't the best at what she did for nothing.

So, a few minutes later Kyan stepped out of the room dressed as a nurse, and began to search for her targets. A quick question at the aide station gave her the information she wanted, and she smiled slightly as she made her way to the room at the end of the hall where Dr. Hikari and the Ijuuin boy were located. She was glad they had stayed in the hospital, since with the way things were right now the SciLabs would have been hell to get into.

The door to the room was wide open, and there weren't to many people inside. Just Dr. Hikari, a few other scientists, and her target. This was going to be like shooting fish in a barrel, Kyan thought as she drew her gun and took aim at the boy...

Yuuichiro hadn't found anything strange about a nurse coming into the room that he and Enzan had taken over to use in their search for Rockman. They had been coming in every so often to see if they needed anything, and it had been awhile since the last one had been around. But his reaction quickly changed when the woman pulled out a gun and aimed at Enzan.

"Look out!" Yuuichiro exclaimed, pushing Enzan to the ground just as the gun fired.

Enzan watched, shocked, as Yuuichiro was shot twice before falling to the ground. The assassin didn't stay around, but took off running as the Net Officers converged on the scene, along with the medical staff. The medics immediately moved to help Yuuichiro, but Enzan could tell by the amount of blood already pooling on the floor that the results weren't going to be good.

"E-Enzan..."Yuuichiro gasped, coughing up a bit of blood at the same time. "Promise me..that you'll find Netto."

"I promise, Dr. Hikari. Just hang on. You're going to be fine," Enzan replied forcefully.

Yuuichiro smiled weakly at Enzan. "Somehow..I don't think..that's going to happen. Tell Netto for me...tell him that I love him...."

The words dropped off as Yuuichiro's eyes shut, and a single breath escaped from his mouth. The heart moniter the medics had hooked him up to suddenly flatlined, and despite their best efforts, the assassin's bullets had found their mark. Enzan could only watch through tear filled eyes as they took him away. 


	17. Chapter Seventeen

Rockman had waited for as long as he could while Neko tried to locate Kichi. When that had failed, Rockman had insisted that she locate where the demon-navi was instead, so that he could go look for Netto. That had been a bit easier than looking for Kichi, and while the radio station that was the source of the black fog (and the most obvious place for Nomde to be), Rockman had dealt with viruses before, and nothing was going to keep him from helping his brother.

That was easier said than done, though. Viruses seemed to be everywhere, more than Rockman could deal with on his own. If he'd had battlechips to fight with, it would have been easier, but all he had was his default weapon, and Neko had a sword she'd found in her house. Even though the viruses would vanish the moment they were hit, there were just so many of them that Rockman and Neko hadn't even made it to the end of the street after nearly 20 minutes, and more viruses were showing up by the minute.

We'll never get past them like this! S-chan shouted. We need a different way through!

"She's right," Neko growled as another virus met up with the end of her sword. "We'll never get to Netto like this."

"Do you know any other ways?" Rockman asked as they dropped back another few feet.

"I know of one possible way. Follow me."

Neko turned and ran back the way they had come, and Rockman and S-chan followed. So did the viruses, until a falling powerline stopped them. That the snow was still falling was both good and bad luck, because it was both helping and hindering their progress in reaching Netto, but right now Rockman was willing to accept anything that would stop the viruses for even a few moments.

They ran past the door that opened up to Neko's home, instead going further into the alley and through an even more hidden door than the one that lead to Neko's home. If Neko hadn't opened it Rockman would have never seen it. It led to a very small room that was empty, save for another door situated into the floor. Neko pulled this one open to reveal a set of stairs.

"This is one of the doors that leads to an old tunnel system that runs throughout the entire city. We should be able to reach the radio station with less trouble through here. I hope," Neko explained.

"So do I," Rockman said softly, climbing down the stairs. He walked carefully, the stairs were covered with a thin layer of ice, and so were the walls. It was colder down here than it was above ground, and Rockman was slightly worried for Neko because of it. He was fairly certain he would be able to last longer in the cold, but Neko might have trouble doing so.

"Neko, are you sure about this? Its very cold down here, and it might be safer for you to stay up top if you lock yourself into your home," Rockman suggested, his tone worried. "It was bad enough that he hadn't been able to protect Netto, he didn't want Neko to get hurt because of him too.

"Like hell," Neko replied with a grin. "If you go, I go. Besides, you have no idea how to navigate these tunnels, and without me you'll be lost in a matter of minutes. So lets go before things get any worse around here."

Driving through the fog had been hell. Kichi could barely stand being surrounded by the aura of evil that had descended over the city. And it blocked out her ability to See into the future. So she was basically flying blind. The snow didn't help either, and the roads were as icy as when she had left. And while she did get some pleasure out of running viruses over with her truck, her fear that Netto had come to harm was growing greater by the minute. She had been trying to contact Neko, but the either the storm or the dark fog was blocking the signal. She was guessing that it was the latter one that was causing the problem.

((This is annoying. Those things outside are slowing us down.)) Tainn growled as the truck rammed through yet another group of viruses.

"You're more than welcome to get out and hunt them, if you want," Kichi said through clenched teeth. "I plan on staying in my truck for now, thank you very much."

Tainn didn't say anything, which was perhaps the best thing at the moment. When Kichi was worried about something she tended to have a short temper, and though Tainn was stronger than her, right then she was driving the truck that he was riding in, and he didn't want her to swerve into a streetlight or something. There weren't any people out to hit that they could see, the viruses were stupid enough not to get out of the way of the truck, and the navis that they had seen got out of the way faster than a normal person would have.

Kichi felt just a bit sorry for those navis that were stuck wandering around this world. She had to wonder just how many of them knew what was going on, and just how worried their NetOps had to be. Certainly she would have been been worried if she had a navi and it had suddenly vanished from the net. That was another reason Kichi was glad she didn't have a pet or a navi. She couldn't deal with worrying about another person right now. She'd've gone insane if she had.

((Kichi, there is someone up ahead, I think.)) Anuzu said, pressing her nose against the window. ((Make that four someones...two humans and two navis!))

"Oh?" Kichi slowed down slightly and looked out her window as well. "Well now! Its Laika and Searchman! Imagine that. No clue who the other two are though..."

((Stop and see what they know. Perhaps they know where Netto is being held.)) Tainn ordered.

"Why would Laika know that?" Kichi growled, pushing on the brake pedal.

((Because he was in here when Nomde took over. He may know what we don't.))

"Fine..but only because you insisted."

The fact that she had to ask Laika for information at all irritated her, but she needed to find Netto as quickly as possible. And if Laika didn't know, perhaps Searchman did. And she wanted to know where they had been. She remembered Netto mentioning that neither one had checked in with the other Net Saviors when she had been in the hospital with him earlier...

"Hey, Laika! Searchman! Where have you two been?" Kichi shouted as she half ran, half slid over to them. She ignored the girl and her navi for the moment, focusing all of her attention on the Sharo Net Savior and his navi.

"W-who are you?" Laika asked, looking very confused.

"Don't even start playing around with me!" Kichi shouted, smacking Laika in the head as hard as she could. It was hard enough to send him sliding backward on the icy ground, and he fell over before anyone could steady him. He stared up at Kichi like a stunned fish, but Kichi wasn't feeling the least bit sympathetic. She had no time for games right now.

"Hey!" the little girl shouted. "Leave him alone! Who the hell are you, anyway?"

"Pyp, its alright," Laika growled, sitting up. He rubbed the back of his head and slowly stood up. "I remember her. I-I actually remember her!"

"Great, you remember me," Kichi growled. "Now you can stop being a jerk and try to answer my questions. Do you know where Netto is?"

"In the hospital, last I knew. Where have you been?"

Laika's tone was back to its superiorness again, though not quite as bad as it had been before.

"I went to get a weapon that was brought by the wolf pack that protects the mountains that's supposed to destroy the demon-navi that's merging the net and the realworld together. Said demon-navi trapped my soul outside of my body for a length of time until a net agent and said wolves pulled my spirit back into my body, and now we're looking for my cousin whom the demon-navi wants to destroy because my cousin apparently is keeping him from reaching his goal in some way," Kichi said in a single breath, her tone all but daring Laika to say he didn't believe her. She was in no mood for his superiority complex, and wouldn't mind sending him back down on the ice to teach him a lesson. But it was the girl, whom Laika had called Pyp, that answered first.

"And that's why you're truck is full of wolves?"

"Correct," Kichi said sharply.

"Pyp, you actually believe that story?" Laika asked in disbelief.

"Sure. Besides, there is a bunch of wolves in her truck, only a blind person could miss that. And I have heard stranger stories. Think of who I live with, and who you've spend the past few days with," Pyp said in a matter-of-fact tone. "Plus, unless you can prove without a doubt that it didn't happen, whose to say that she's not telling the truth?"

Kichi smiled. She just had to. Where had this girl been a few days earlier, when Kichi had gotten into her argument with Laika over the fact that she was a Seer. Not that it mattered. At least Laika seemed more willing to listen to this girl than he was to her. It looked to Kichi that Laika was slightly more willing to accept what Kichi said if Pyp was willing to accept it.

"So Netto was still in the hospital the last you knew? No one has contacted you to tell you otherwise?" Kichi asked.

"No one could contact us, Kichi-san," Searchman replied respectfully. "My Pet was damaged by the water and ice when the streets flooded. There was no way for anyone to reach us."

Kichi nodded slightly. "Then I guess I check the hospital first. Where is it you four are headed?"

"We were looking for the source of this...disturbance," Pyp's navi explained. "But I think it would be safer if we accompanied you to the hospital to look for your cousin, if indeed the navi behind this is after him."

((Then I guess that means we're walking. There's not enough room in this truck, and I smell more snow in the air. The roads will be worse the further in we go, anways. Not to mention I doubt even you could get your truck over those fallen powerlines.))

That made sense, even if Kichi didn't like it. And driving over the sparking cables in a metal truck did not sound like a good idea no matter how it was looked at. But at least the hospital wasn't far, though that wasn't much of a comfort when she though about the viruses that were running about. Then again, Searchman's default weapon was a rifle, and from what Kichi knew, the navi was a very good shot.

((We are no weaklings, either, Pack Sister. And neither are you. You have your daggers with you, we have our teeth and claws. All will be well.)) Anuzu assured Kichi.

"Right then, lets get moving, before we get attacked by something," Kichi said, opening to door of the truck so the wolves in the cab could get out.

"Too late, puku!" came the high-pitched reply. "You're not going anywhere, puku!"

"Wanna bet?" Kichi asked with a slightly evil grin. Her truck was still running, and her foot was right next to the gas pedal...Searchman was already preparing to fire his rifle, but Kichi liked her idea better, and slammed her foot on the gas while hanging from the side of the door.

"PUKU!" Bubbleman tried to run from the truck, but in the end, the truck was faster.

"Sorry, Bubbleman, but you just didn't run fast enough," Kichi growled, her eyes dancing as the annoying navi logged out.

She doubted that would be the last they saw of him, the spirits didn't love them that much at the moment.

"I could have shot him, Kichi-san," Searchman said.

"Yeah, but I need the stress relief right now, or I'm apt to take one of you out," Kichi replied, making certain that she had all of her daggers. "Besides, now he can tell that demon-navi I'm here and that I'm pissed off. I'd like to see his reaction to that."

((Let us just hope for Netto's sake that we find Netto first)) Tainn said soberly.

That was all it took for Kichi to get serious again. If Nomde did anything to her cousin, she was going to make certain that he regretted every second of it.

Nomde was furious. Kyan stood before him and had just reported that she had missed Enzan because some stupid scientist had gotten in the way. Enzan was still alive, and this incompent mercenary had the nerve to come back and report that she had failed! And that she seemed proud of that irritated Nomde even more.

"Why, human, do you think I would reward you for killing a worthless scientist instead of the Ijuuin boy like I had told you?" Nomde asked in a soft, dangerous voice.

"Because," Kyan smirked. "It wasn't just any scientist that I killed. It was Hikari Yuuichiro."

Nomde stopped his pacing and looked at the human through narrowed eyes. "Hikari Yuuichiro? Hmm...that does change things, doesn't it..." He tossed a small bag at Kyan's feet, and when it hit the floor it clanged with the sound of money hitting money. Kyan smiled and picked it up.

"That's for doing me a favor and getting rid of Hikari-hakase. Now go and kill the Ijuuin boy. I won't tolerate a second failure, even if you kill all of the leaders of the countries of this world. Its that brat that I want dead. Understand?"

"Perfectly," Kyan replied, leaving the room.

Nomde waited for her to leave before going into the room that held Netto Hikari. The boy was still putting up quite a fight that Nomde found amusing, but a bit boring as well. Once to body grew accustomed to pain it wasn't as interesting, and Netto seemed to be good at adapting to pain. It would be interesting to see how he adapted to this turn of events.

The demon navi slid through the glass cage that held Netto as though it wasn't even there. Netto stood rigid and still where the dark energy that flowed through him - thanks to Nombe - held him in place. Netto gave the demon-navi a look of pure hatred, but Nomde simply laughed.

"Now, now, why such a dour look when I've come to bring you some news of the outside world," Nomde hissed gleefully.

"No news you bring is good," Netto spat back, trying hard to move and being unable to do so.

"True enough, but that's why I like it so much. And besides, I thought you would like to know this news, since it pertains to your father."

Netto's eyes widened. "What about my father?" He asked in a low voice.

"That he's dead. One of my servants just killed him. Isn't that nice?"

Nomde grinned as he watched Netto digest that news. He watched as the boy's eyes grew wider, then filled with tears.

"You're lying! There's no way my father's dead!" Netto howled. "You're just making that up!"

"Hah! Why would I bother? I've got better things to do than to make up lies to tell you. Like taking over this pathetic world of yours and making it mine. When I say your father is dead, I mean it. Perhaps I shall have my servants bring me his body to show you? No? Some other time then. I must take my leave of you for now, I'm quite busy you know."

With an evil chuckled Nomde disappeared. Netto felt himself going numb. It couldn't be true. His father couldn't be dead. Nomde was capable of it, but Netto didn't want to believe it. Even though his heart told him that it was true... Tears began to fall down his face and his heart grew tight with pain.

"Damn you, Nomde! I'll make you pay! Just wait, you will pay!" 


	18. Chapter Eighteen

The moment Kichi, Laika, and Pyp reached the hospital they found the scene to be very chaotic. Given the current circumstances, that shouldn't have been to surprising, but the number of police officers and their navis that were moving about was surprising. It looked as if they had walked into a hornet's nest. 

bi((We shall wait and watch from the other side of the street, Pack Sister))/i/b Tainn said. bi((It looks like there is more than enough chaos over there without a pack of wolves to add to it.))/i/b

"Agreed. I'll let you know what we find."

Tainn growled loudly, and the wolves disappeared into the snow, out of sight. Only Anuzu stayed buy Kichi's side, once again acting as Kichi's 'pet' dog. Laika gave Kichi an odd look, which Kichi ignored. She was anxious to find her cousin and make sure he was alright. And the number of police officers around did very little to ease her nerves. It made no sense for them to be at the hospital if they weren't injured.

i((I see Enzan! He's in front of the doors.))/i Anuzu said, tugging at Kichi's coat.

Kichi peered through the crowd and spotted not only Enzan, but Meijin as well. Laika spotted them as well, and both he and Kichi raced over to them. Pyp and the navis trailed behind them. The moment Kichi got close enough to see Enzan and Meijin's expressions she felt her heart grow cold. Something was very wrong.

"What's happened?" Kichi demanded. "What's wrong? Did something happen to Netto?"

Enzan looked at Kichi with tear-filled eyes for a second, but was unable to speak. Seeing she'd get no answer from Enzan, she turned to Meijin instead. 

"Meijin-san?" Kichi's voice was tight with anxiety.

"We're looking for Netto right now, Kichi," Meijin replied softly. "He was kidnapped from the hospital yesterday morning."

"What!" Kichi shouted. "Kidnapped? D-does Yuuichiro know? Haruka? I know that navi is behind this. Where is Yuuichiro? Is he here?"

"Uh, about that...Kichi, I-I don't know how to tell you this..."

"Excuse me, sir," a nurse interrupted. "I was told to ask you who is Dr. Hikari's next of kin is?"

All of the blood drained from Kichi's face the moment she heard those words. She felt completely numb. Yuuichiro couldn't be dead. It just wasn't possible. She looked at Meijin, her eyes begging him to tell her that this was some horrible mistake. Meijin could only shake his head.

"I-I want to see him."

Meijin nodded and took ahold of Kichi's arm as he led her into the hospital. No one followed them. Meijin led Kichi into the room where Yuuichiro had been laid out. Kichi pulled away from Meijin the moment she saw Yuuichiro, and the young scientist was smart enough to have the sense to leave Kichi alone at that moment.

Kichi choked back a sob as she walked over to her uncle, carefully brushing away a strand of hair from where it had fallen over his eyes. She couldn't let herself break down, not now. Tears wouldn't bring Yuuichiro back, and they wouldn't help save Netto. And she owed it to her uncle to make sure that his only son was brought back safely to his mother. And she was going to make sure that the one who killed her uncle paid dearly. Taking one last look at her favorite uncle, Kichi muttered a curse and stormed out of the room.

"Kichi?" Meijin asked, following her back outside.

"I'm going after Netto," She snapped. "I owe my uncle that much."

"Then I'm going with you," Enzan replied. "I promised Dr. Hikari I'd make sure Netto was safe."

Kichi nodded, very slightly.

"We're going too," Pyp and Laika said at the same time.

"Fine. Just don't get in my way," Was all Kichi said.

"Do you even know where to go?" Meijin asked.

"Trust me, I'll find it," Kichi growled.

i(Tainn! Come on, we're going after Netto and that demon.)/i

ib((I understand. We shall scout ahead. I have an idea as to where he might be.))/b/i

i(Good. Then move out.)/i 


	19. Chapter Nineteen

Shademan poked his head through the open door of the room that Netto was in, looking to see if Nomde was around. The demon-navi was nowhere to be seen, so the Darkloid slipped into the room and sauntered over to the glass case where Netto was. He looked at the boy, who's expression was one of grief and and anger. Given his position, Shademan could understand that expression. 

The Darkloid even felt a bit of pity for the young NetSavior, and a bit of anger at Nomde. Not because he was using the boy, no, Shademan wasn't angry at that. It was because Nomde had promised them power, and they hadn't gotten it. And the longer things went on, the more Shademan grew to believe that Nomde would never give them what they'd been promised. If anything, Shademan felt that if Nomde grew any more powerful, nothing would be able to stop him, and that put Shademan's survival in jeapordy, and he didn't like that. So, given his options, Shademan felt that it would be in his best interest to help the captured NetSavior. And it was in his best interest to do so quickly, before Nomde returned.

Looking around, the navi searched for the right cords that were sending power through the cage. There were a great many wires around the glass tube that it was hard to say which one went where, but a good swipes had all of them severered, and the power cut off. With the power cut off there was nothing to keep Netto from collapsing against the glass, which was exactly what happened.

Snorting with distaste, Shademan walked over to the glass cage. "Cover your face," was all he said, and without another warning, smashed his fist against the glass. The cage shattered beneath the navi's fist, the shards spilling out along the floor. He grabbed Netto by the collar of his shirt and hauled the boy to his feet. Netto barely had the strenght to keep his feet under him, but he managed to ask, "Why?"

"Because I don't like the idea of me not surviving this, and since you seem to be a big part of his plan, the further you are from that navi, the better it is for me."

Netto nodded slightly. Anything was better than being stuck under Nomde's power, even if it meant trusting Shademan.

"Can you walk?" Shademan growled.

Netto shook his head. He felt so weak, and his entire body was trembling. If Shademan let go of his shirt, Netto would fall to the floor like a rag doll. Shademan's growl grew a bit louder and he glared at Netto for a moment before tossing Netto over his shoulder like a sack of wheat.

The halls of the radio station were empty as Shademan carried Netto through them, heading for the stairwell rather than the elevator. The air in the stairwell was cold, and through the small windows that appeared at each floor Netto could just barely see the world outside through the frost-covered panes, and it was a bleak world that he saw. He shivered, though whether it was from the cold or from fear it was hard to say.

Shademan hurried down the stairs, going all the way down into the basement, then over to a small corner room that looked as if no one had been in there for ages. Here Shademan dropped Netto to the floor, then pulled up one of the floor pannels. Netto, having regained a bit of his strength, looked over and saw that it opened up to a tunnel.

"This is as far as I take you. You'd better get yourself as far away from here as this tunnel can get you. As far as I know, Nomde doesn't know about this tunnel, but I'd not count on it if I were you, and go as quickly as you can."

"Uh...thanks, I think," Netto said quietly, managing to get his feet under him without wobbling to much.

"Don't thank me, human. Remember, the only reason I helped you was to keep myself from being wiped out. Get moving now so that I can close this back up."

Netto nodded and lowered himself down into the tunnel. It had occurred to the 14 year old that this could be another trap, but it couldn't be any worse than being held by Nomde. If it was a trap, the worst that would happen would be that he would freeze to death, given how cold it was in the tunnel, and that Netto no longer had his winter gear. But at least that was a relatively painless death. He'd just fall asleep and never wake up. And if that happened, at least he would be with his father again. Bitter tears that he'd held back before now fell freely, and Netto didn't try to stop them from falling. It would be so easy to just give up and let himself die, but he knew that Papa would never have done that, and he knew that Mama, Rockman and Enzan still needed him. That was, perhaps, the only thing that kept him from giving up right then and there. He was still needed, he couldn't give up and let Nomde win.

Rockman followed Neko through what seemed like a completely random path through the tunnel system that seemed to stretch on forever. The navi had never known that there was such a catacomb beneath the city, and he wondered just how many people actually did know about it. He'd certainly never heard anyone ever mention it among the Net Saviors. Then again, Rockman wasn't sure that the various hackers, of which Neko was one, would choose to use these tunnels if the Net Saviors did know about them. Still, even if the Net Saviors knew about them, Rockman doubted that they could navigate them as well Neko and her 'friends' did. It would be so easy to get lost down here if a person didn't know where they were going. Rockman had been trying to use a navigation program to figure out where they were, and he was completely lost regardless of it. It was a small wonder that Kichi had found such a resourceful person to help her out. It was also a good thing that she was helping Rockman, or Rockman would have wandered around forever down here and never find his way out.

So far they hadn't run into any viruses, which was a good thing, so far as Rockman was concerned. They had run into a few other people and navis, whom Neko had identified as other hackers she knew, but she hadn't bothered to introduce him. Rockman could understand that, too. He was part of the Net Saviors, and if circumstances were different, he would have had to help arrest them. But there was no time for that, and from what Neko told him, they weren't hurting anyone, and he wasn't going to start trouble when he had enough to deal with already. Like finding Netto.

"We should be getting close," Neko said softly.

"How can you tell?" Rockman asked. "Everything looks the same to me."

"I know these tunnels inside and out. Why else do you think I've never been caught before? Or why my friends and I are so hard to catch in general. You could loose anyone down here and not get lost yourself if you knew the tunnels as well as I do."

Rockman nodded and allowed himself to smile slightly. Neko sounded very sure of herself, and it reminded Rockman of his brother. The smile faded at that thought, and once again he was consumed by both worry and guilt. He should have been able to protect Netto. He didn't know how, but he should have been able to do something.

biAnd why is that/b/i S-chan asked. biWhat could you have done against that woman? She had a gun, and you were in the Pet. There was nothing you could have done to prevent this, so there is no reason to feel guilty. What matters now is that you can do something, so worry about that and not the past./i/b

Rockman had to smile at that little speech. S-chan sounded just like Kichi at that moment. S-chan looked up from Neko's shoulder and wrinkled her nose at him.

biI should hope so. Must be my good sense rubbing of on her./i/b

Rockman didn't get a chance to reply to that saucy comment, because he heard something moving up further ahead in the tunnel. He stepped in front of Neko, in case it was a virus or something dangerous, his buster ready to fire. But it was no virus that came around the corner. Rockman could barely believe what he saw.

"Netto-kun!"

Netto, who had been using the wall of the tunnel to keep himself up-right, lifted his drooped head at the sound of his name, and his eyes widened with both disbelief and joy at the same time as the blue navi rushed foreward to hug his brother.

"You're alright, Netto-kun! Thank God you're alright," Rockman exclaimed. "I was so worried."

"I'm glad to see you too, Rockman," Netto replied, giving a weak grin.

"We should get him back to the hospital," Neko said, interrupting the mini-family reunion. "He should have a doctor check over him."

Rockman nodded. "We can find Enzan and Papa too. We need to come up with a plan to fight Nomde."

Netto's face became a mask of grief when Rockman mentioned Yuuichiro. It seemed that Rockman hadn't yet been told about Yuuichiro's death.

"Rockman...I have...some bad news..." 


	20. Chapter Twenty

Nomde had returned to his lair, only to find that the Darkloids were gone, and so was Netto. Someone had smashed the glass cage and let him out, and there was no trace of where he had gone. Which made the demon navi very, very angry. He needed Netto to power his growing dimensional area, since the demon navi had no intention of using himself to power it. He'd deal with whoever had freed the brat after he got Netto back. Nomde figured that it was one, if not all, of the Darkloids who'd had a hand in it. But finding Netto was his first concern.

"Nomde-sama, puku!" a very annoying voice cried behind the black navi. Nomde's eyes narrowed in irritation as he turned to face the smaller navi.

"What do you want?" Nomde snapped. "If you haven't noticed, we have a major problem!"

"I know, puku!" Bubbleman wailed. "The Net Saviors and some stranger are on their way here with Netto's cousin and a pack of wolves. The girl said something about a weapon that could destroy you!"

"Really?" Nomde hissed. That was a bit of interesting information. Just what kind of weapon did that Seer had that she thought she could use against him? At least he knew where Netto would most likely be heading. That made things a bit difficult for Nomde, though. He had to get Netto back before the dimensional area began to fade. He had a few hours of leeway before that would happen, and by that time he planned to have Netto back in his power. So his best choice for the time being was to find the Seer and watch her from a distance, and wait for Netto to go to her. Then he'd grab Netto before they could do anything. 

Whether or not that mercenary he hired did her job Nomde couldn't worry about now. Without Netto all of his plans would fall apart. Silently he cursed the incompetent human who had messed up the unsealing spell. If he had done it correctly Nomde wouldn't have been having this current problem. All the more reason for him to wipe out the human race once he got Netto back.

"Stay here, Bubbleman. If those other incompetent navis come back, tell them that I wish to speak with them when I get back. I shall be back soon."

"Yes, Nomde-sama, puku."

Rockman was staring at Netto is disbelief. So was Neko, and S-chan was curled up in the hacker's arms, shaking like an aspen leaf. Netto had just finished telling them what Nomde had told him, that his father, Yuuichiro, was dead.

"Netto-kun, I can't believe that," Rockman said, taking a deep breath to steady himself. "Nomde had to be making it up, just to torment you."

"Right," Neko agreed, nodding. "And I know that Kichi would have found a way to let us know if that had really happened. You know she would."

Netto nodded, very slightly. He still wasn't sure, though. Granted, Nomde had said himself that he drew his power from fear and hate, but there was something about it that he couldn't shake off easily. Rockman sensed his brother's doubt.

"We'll find Kichi, Netto-kun. She'll know where Papa is, and we can get in touch with him. Then we can deal with Nomde, okay?"

"Okay," Netto agreed. "But how are we going to find Kichi? I know she'll have gone after Nomde to try and save me, and from the looks of things, you didn't run into her down here."

"Well, we'll go above and look for her, then. But lets head back down the tunnel a bit, first. The demon-navi is probably looking for you close to his lair. So it'll be crawling with viruses. Should be a bit better further out, and we can start our search there," Neko said. "Since my phone is dead, we'll just have to rely on S-chan's nose."

Both Netto and Rockman nodded. They both wanted to know the truth, but being reckless wouldn't get them the answer they wanted any faster. And Netto didn't want to end up back in Nomde's clutches again.

Nomde lurked in the shadows, going from rooftop to rooftop, following the odd little group down on the streets below as they made their way closer to the radio station. They were still several blocks away from his lair, and with all of the virus from the net swarming around, their speed was minimal at best. He had to admit, rather grudgingly, that they were fighting quite well, given the sheer number of viruses they were up against. That sniper Navi was doing quite well, and that rather common navi wasn't to bad of a shot either, even using just a default weapon. The humans were being quite inventive, not surprising, considering two of them were Net Saviors. The third human, whom Nomde didn't know, was fighting just as hard, though she was sticking to the smaller viruses. The wolves were fighting like, well, wolves. The Pack had always been something to be wary of, and even with reduced numbers were something to be feared. 

And then there was the Seer. That troublesome, irritating Seer. She should have died in his last attack, but know, somehow she had managed to escape. Even from where he was Nomde could see the aura of anger around her. It clung to her like static electricity, and it made her seem mucher bigger and fiercer than Nomde had remembered from their last encounter. It even made him feel a bit of fear of his own. Humans, he knew, were often controlled by their emotions, and those emotions could either make a human very weak, or very dangerous. And in this case, it had made the Seer very dangerous indeed.

Such emotions had proved to be his downfall in the distant past. It was the emotions of a human girl, one called Aleka, that had been the cause of him being sealed away. She had cast her own life to the winds because she had loved every being without hesitation. So much so that she had offered her own life to save the lives of even those who had hated her with everything they had. Such a powerful emotion, love. Powerful enough to seal Nomde up for several centuries. That seal had been so powerful that Nomde had thought that he would never find a way out.

And then an amzing stroke of luck had occured. The kind of thing that he had only dreamed about, but had never expected to happen. The human responsible for sealing him away had been reborn into the body of a little boy. It was as if the Spirits were taunting him, daring him to just try and escape. A pity to them that he was that daring. There was a way for him to escape and destroy the human race, and he was going to take it.

But of course, the Spirits had thrown a boulder in his past. The wolf that had helped bring about his downfall had been born as well, and while it wasn't the power that had sealed him, the child who inherited that spirit could in fact sense Nomde, and quite possibly prevent Nomde from reaching the other child. The Spirits had given him an opportunity to escape, and then tossed the very thing that could prevent it from happening into the mix as well. Something that had irritated Nomde to no end.

He had waited, though, and watched the two children grow. Despite being sealed in the mountains, his eyes reached very far, far enough that he could watch them grow. And for a very long time it had looked as if the two boys would never meet each other, and that would mean that Nomde could try and move in on the brat that would once again give him the power to destroy everything and reforge it into his image. He would have to find a body to take over first, and then go after the boy. Then he would preform the ritual that would give him the power he needed, and then the world would be his to command.

But of course, fate had other plans. The two had met, and though they had started off as enemies, had become friends as they had faught off different terrorist groups. Nomde hated those groups with a passion now, since they were pretty much the reason the two boys had grown closer together. But Nomde was still certain that he could win, and so he had decided to go ahead with his plans. And when that poacher had made the mistake of coming into the cave where Nomde was trapped, well, Nomde couldn't have asked for a better opportunity to present itself. He had placed some of his energy into the poacher to take over his mind, and had sent the human after Netto. 

He had succeeded, and had performed the ritual as Nomde had commanded, except for one small error. That error had made it so that Nomde had been released, as he had wanted, but without the power he needed. And now he needed to leach the power out of Netto so that he could complete his revenge against the earth in general, and the humans specifically. That was why Nomde had placed that mass of dark energy inside of Netto, to leech away to power Nomde needed, and eventually kill Netto. Once Nomde had leeched away all of the power out of Netto, the demon navi wouldn't have to worry about his dark dimensional area going down at all. Once it had covered all of the world, of course. The he could destroy the humans at his leisure.

But now Netto had escaped, and Nomde was stalking the group of humans that he was most likely to come to. And one of those humans was dangerously close to going beserk. Add two navis, and two Net Saviors to the mix, one of which was also one of his ancient enemies, and Nomde had a rather explosive situation growing beneath him. Perhaps it would be better for him to take care of this situation before it got out of hand. Or more specifically, take care of the Seer before ishe/i got out of hand. He'd worry about the others afterwards.

The demon navi moved silently, sliding down the wall of a small building down into a dark alley a little ways ahead of the group. The number of viruses was beginning to thin down, enough that the group pushed through a bit more quickly, and right into Nomde's range. Growling with rage of his own, Nomde launched himself out of the alley, claws bared, headed straight for the group... 


	21. Chapter TwentyOne

Nomde flew at Kichi with his claws aimed for her throat. Kichi felt the presence of the demon a few seconds before he launched himself at her. Those few seconds ended up saving her life.

Kichi brought up her dagger and used the flat of the blade as a lever to throw the demon over her head. "You!" she hissed.

Nomde laughed ruthlessly. "Well well, it looks like my last attempt didn't take you out Seer. I will not fail this time!" he screeched diving for her again.

Kichi saw the claws arc to her right, she twisted her body just enough that she caught the claws with her blade, letting the sharp metal slide between his fingers. Nomde screeched in pain and pulled his arm back using his left arm to try and catch Kichi unaware.

"Look out!" cried Laika.

Kichi dimly heard the warning and brought up her left arm to parry the blow. Her wrist slid between the huge claws blocking this attach much like her dagger did only he wasn't wounded this time.

They jumped apart and looked at each other again, assessing what the other could do and what would happen next. Warily they stalked each other in a circle, always staying on the opposite sides and forcing the others to move out of the way.

Kichi made the first move, diving in with her dagger held tightly in her fist. Nomde was soon to follow suit baring his claws once again. Kichi twisted her foot underneath the large navi and swirled her legs around tripping him up. Then she brought up her other leg and kicked him in the stomach.

Nomde took the blow and when her foot landed in his stomach he grabbed her by the ankle and threw her across the street into a wall. Kichi slid down, temporarily stunned and Nomde took his chance.

"No!" Pyp cried. She started to run where Kichi was as well and just before Nomde could slice her with his claws Pyp ran in front and threw her arms out wide to protect Kichi.

"Move aside you stupid girl!" Nomde snarled and he backhanded her into the street where she lay motionless. "I'll deal with you later," he said.

Kichi saw the whole thing and flew up screeching her rage. She punched Nomde in the jaw knocking him of kilter, then she brought up her knee in a roundhouse and smacked him on the other side of his head. Nomde quickly regained his composure, but not his pride. He slashed out at Kichi forcing her to dive to the right on her bruised wrist.

Nomde saw his chance and grabbed her around the throat, slowly choking her. Kichi struggled for air and made a show of her want for it. While the others looked on in horror and Nomde looked on with glee she brought up her dagger and drove it into his forearm.

Nomde let go with a screech letting Kichi drop to the ground, gasping for air.

Then Netto, Rockman and Neko came out of the dark alleyway slowly taking in the scene before them.

"Kichi!" The trio exclaimed together as they saw drop to the ground and scramble out of the way of the demon navi.

"Netto-kun! Stay back! Get away from here!" Kichi shouted at her cousin, knowing that Nomde wanted him back in his possesion. Nomde, still stunned from the dagger blow, turned his red eyes on Netto, taking a moment to focus on his new target. But before he could attack Searchman and Laika attacked him instead, distracting Nomde for a brief moment. That was all the time that Enzan needed to grab Netto by the wrist and drag him back the way Kichi's group had come. Rockman was right behind him, and by silent agreement Tainn and the other wolves followed. Despite their desire to help Kichi, their duty was to protect Netto.

"Enzan-kun! Where are we going? Kichi needs help!" Netto exclaimed, trying to pull away from Enzan. But Enzan's grip was to hard for him to break, and when he tried to slow down it was Rockman who kept pushing him foreward to go faster.

"Nomde's still after you, Netto-kun," Rockman said. "We can't let him get you."

"Rockman's right, Netto. I promised your father I wouldn't let Nomde hurt you," Enzan said, his tone both bitter and sorrowful.

"E-Enzan, about my father..." Netto hesitated, taking several deep breaths of the freezing air. It was enough to make his lungs hurt, but that was nothing compared to the pain he felt in his heart. "Nomde said that he...That he was..."

"Nomde told Netto-kun that Papa was dead, Enzan," Rockman finished for his brother. "That's not true, right? Nomde was lying to Netto-kun. Right?"

Enzan stopped running quite suddenly, which sent Netto flying into Enzan's back. He steadied himself, but he didn't move away from Enzan, who was now trembling.

"Enzan?" Netto asked.

"Netto-kun, Rockman...Nomde wasn't lying. Hikari-hakase was killed by an assassin. He died protecting me." Those last words came out as with a sob, and tears were once again flowing from Enzan's eyes. Rockman was silent with shock, and once again Netto found himself overcome with grief. He burried his head against Enzan's shoulders, glad for the small comfort it gave him. Enzan wrapped his arms around Netto, hugging the smaller boy closer to him, wishing for all the world that he could change what had happened. Finally it was Rockman who broke the silence.

"We should get moving again. The sooner we get Netto to where the NetPolice are, the safer he'll be from Nomde."

But in their hearts they all knew that no matter where Netto went, Nomde would hunt him down.

An odd tugging sensation pulled at Yuuichiro, causing him to pause for a moment. He had woken up in a tunnel filled with light, and had been walking down it, not sure how he had gotten there, and unable to remember what had happened to him before he had arrived there, but somehow knowing that he was supposed to walk into the tunnel. All he knew for certain was that the light was gave off a very comforting feeling, one that got stronger as he went further into it. That had been the only thing he had felt, until he felt that odd tugging.

He stopped walking and turned around, not sure what was causing the tugging feeling. He wasn't sure what he had been expecting, but it wasn't what he saw. Walking steadily towards him was a small girl with spikey black hair and amber eyes, dressed in a white dress. She smiled as she got closer, and stopped a few feet from where Yuuichiro stood.

"Hello, Hikari-hakase," said the girl.

"Hello.." Yuuichiro replied, sounding a bit unsure. "Who are you?"

"A friend. You do realize you're going the wrong way, right?" the girl asked. "You should be walking that way." She pointed back the way that Yuuichiro had come.

"I am?"

The girl nodded. "Your son still needs you, Yuuichiro-san. Your work is not yet finished. Come, come with me. It will hurt for a moment, but you are needed. Netto-kun needs you."

The child held out her hand to Yuuichiro, who looked at it for a moment, trying to understand what was going on. Once again he felt that odd tugging sensation, this time deep within his heart. Netto still needed him. He had to go back, there was no question about that. Nodding, Yuuichiro took hold of the girl's hand.

All at once the light that had been around him pulsed brighter than anything he had ever seen, completely obscuring the girl and everything around from him from sight. For a moment or so there was pain, intense pain, as the girl had said there would be, but it lasted for only a moment. Then he was suddenly aware of a heavy sheet covering his body, a dim light overhead, and the odd, low humming that seemed to be a part of every hospital, a noise that you had to either get used to or go insane from.

Then Yuuichiro remembered why he was in the hospital. He'd been looking for Netto, and someone had attacked Enzan, and Yuuichiro had taken the shots meant for the young NetSavior... Yuuichiro sat up as he remembered that, causing the two nurses in the room to scream and run in terror. A few seconds later Meijin ran into the room, startled, and confused.

"Hikari-hakase! H-how-" Meijin said, shaking his head, his face holding an expression of shock.

"I don't know, Meijin," Yuuichiro replied. "But I'm not complaining. Where is Enzan?"

"He went with Kichi, Laika and some other kid to go find Netto. Apparently Kichi had some idea as to where he was. I was just going to go after them when the nurses came out of here screaming that you'd come back from the dead."

At this point a doctor and several nurses came into the room with all kinds of equipment to hook Yuuichiro up to. Yuuichiro didn't want to comply, he wanted to go find his son, but he didn't have the strength to pull away from all of the nurses and the doctor. So instead he told Meijin, "Go find Kichi and the boys. They'll need all the help they can get if they're going to attack that demon-navi."

Meijin nodded and ran from the room. Yuuichiro hoped that he would reach the NetSaviors and his niece before any of them got hurt. And as soon as he had a bit more strength the scientist inteaded to join them, no matter what these doctors wanted.

OOC: And this chapter was both a pain and fun to write. Thank Neko for writing the battle scene that started this chapter off, or it would never have been written. You should also have known that I couldn't keep Yuuichiro dead...that and I shouldn't watch MASH late at night, because it was one of those episodes that had me bringing him back from the dead... So all hail the reruns of one of the most awsome tv series I know. nn This series is drawing to a close. There are a few more chapters left, but not to many, I would think. After almost two years the trilogy is drawing to an end! \o/ goes to soak her hands which are now hurting 


	22. Chapter 22

Kichi's limbs were beginning to feel like pieces of lead. The pain she had long since put out of her mind; it was better not to think of the broken bones in her wrists where Nomde had smashed them against the ground, or the deep scratches caused by his claws. Laika, Pyp and the navis had all been taken out by Nomde, one at a time, leaving Kichi and the demon-navi fighting against each other. S-chan was huddled against Laika's unconscious body, unable to do anything to help.

Nomde was facing Kichi, opposite the way he wanted to go. Kichi was blocking the alley/road that Netto and Enzan had gone down, two more daggers in her hands. Several of her other knives were either lying broken in the trampled snow, or were still embedded in the demon navi, who, like Kichi, was showing every sign of being extremely warn out. Unfortunately for Kichi, these two daggers were her last two daggers, and after that she would be weaponless, and Nomde would have the upper hand, and he knew it.

"Well, well," Nomde laughed evilly. "On our last legs, are we? You should have given up when you had the chance."

"Go to hell, demon," was Kichi's only response.

Shrieking a curse, Nomde charged at Kichi, who jumped back and to the side to dodge it, then twisting all over to avoid the swinging fists he threw her way. All of the twisting and turning had caused the little crystal stone star to wiggle its way out of Kichi's pocket, and within seconds it was on the ground. Nomde and Kichi were both quick to notice it, and Nomde, not being the least bit slow-witted, knew what it was immediately, and made a dive for it.

"Oh no you don't!" Kichi screamed, ramming herself against Nomde to push him away from it. "S-chan! Take that thing to Netto!"

The little skunk moved like a dart and scooped the crystal up in her mouth and ran off into the alley/road, away from the battle.

"Bad move," Nomde growled, digging his claws into Kichi's arms. Kichi screamed in pain as fresh blood littered the snow. Nomde lifted Kichi well off of the ground and threw her aside, right against the wall of a building. With a dull 'thud' Kichi landed in the snow drift below. She tried to get herself up, but had used up all of her strength, and collapsed to the ground once again.

"Are you in pain, Seer?" Nomde sneered as he lifted Kichi up by her neck and threw her, sending her flying several feet before crashing against the ground again.

"Don't worry, I'll put you out of your misery." He kicked her in the ribs, sending her skidding yet another few feet, this time into a phone pole. Nomde pulled one of the longer knives out of his own arm and held it over Kichi's exposed neck.

"This time, I'm going to make sure you stay dead," he added sweetly. "So have a nice time in the afterlife, my troublesome little Seer..."

"Don't be so sure!" another voice shouted.

Nomde froze for a second, turning just in time to see a very silent snow mobile coming right at him. Instinct took ahold, Nomde dropped the knife and jumped out of the way before he was hit, and the snow mobile came to a sudden stop before it hit Kichi. Sitting on the snow mobile was a very annoyed-looking Meijin. Nomde looked like he had just swallowed something very unpleasent.

"Well wouldn't you know, the imfamous Meijin Eguchi," Nomde hissed. "An honor to meet such a famous scientist, but I don't have the time for any more games."

In actuallity, Nomde was on the last bit of his strength. He had to save what energy he had for grabbing Netto. Already he was feeling the strain of the field surrounding the city, and already he'd had to begin pulling it in to conserve energy. That that wretched little skunk was on her way to the brat right now with that little weapon did not bode well either. He would have to catch Netto before the beast had a chance to reach him. Hissing at Meijin once again, Nomde vanished into the shadows.

Meijin didn't try to go after him. Instead he turned his attention to Kichi and the others. There was a small group of Net Police coming behind him to help out, and they would be able to get Pyp, Laika, and Kichi to the hospital in no time. There wasn't much that they could do at this point, injured as they were.

"M-Meijin," Kichi said, managing to get one of her eyes open. "We n-need to find N-Netto and Enzan. Now."

"You don't need to do anything," Mein said, kneeling next to Kichi and lifting her up into a sitting position. "You've done enough already. Just tell me what to do and leave the rest to me."

Kichi shook her head. "No. Spirits telling me...I have to go. Now."

Meijin looked at Kichi in disbelief. She'd fought that demon navi, had been beaten near to death, and now she was asking - no - demanding that he help her go after Netto and Enzan, injured as he was. The medical staff would have a fit. Yuuichiro would probably knock him senseless when he was strong enough. But he also had a very strong feeling that, injured though she was, Kichi was not going to take no for an answer.

"Your uncle is going to kill me for this later," Meijin muttered, helping Kichi up onto the snow mobile. The medical team accompanying the police had already loaded Pyp and Laika into the ambulance, and their navis were safely back in their Pets. They gave Meijin an odd look when they saw Kichi, but when he waved them off, they shrugged and drove off.

"My uncle...is alive?" Kichi asked, thinking she had misheard what Meijin had said.

"Yes, though how, I don't know," Meijin said, climbing onto the snow mobile behind Kichi. He started the engine back up and headed down the alley/road once he asked Kichi which way the two boys had gone.

S-chan! When you find Netto and Enzan, tell them that Uncle Yuuichiro is still alive! Kichi 'shouted' to the skunk, hoping she was still close enough to hear her. And that Nomde is on his way! The best she could do for now was try to give them a warning, and home that she and Meijin caught up to them before Nomde did.

Nomde was seething with rage. He needed energy, and he needed it fast. At the rate he was having to pull in the energy field there was a chance that Netto could escape from him before Nomde's energy burned out. And wouldn't that be ironic, to have the world in his grasp, only to have it taken away because he couldn't find an energy source. All because of that damned Seer. She was more trouble than she was worth, and who would have thought a mere woman would be such a warrior.

"Nomde-sama?" a very familiar, annoying voice called from behind him.

The demon navi spun around to find the fat blue navi standing behind him. Bubbleman looked very happy to see Nomde, and all at once an evil grin spread across the dark navi's face.

"Ah, my friend, I'm so glad you have found me," Nomde said, making his voice seem more tired than he really was, though that wasn't to difficult at that point. "I've been badly injured. Please, can you help me back to the lair?"

"Of course!" Bubbleman exclaimed, eager to help out.

As soon as he was in reach, though, Nomde grabbed Bubbleman by the neck and lifted him off the ground. Bubbleman looked at his supposed friend in shock and horror.

"What're you doing, puku!" Bubbleman shouted. "I thought I was your friend, puku!"

"You are my friend," Nomde said with a grin. "And friends help each other. I need energy, you see, and you're going to be a good friend and give me that energy. So I'll thank you now, since you won't be around afterwards to thank."

Bubbleman screamed in terror as Nomde began to absorb his data, and within seconds there was nothing left of Bubbleman at all. Nomde grinned as he watched the wounds on his body heal, and once again he felt like his normal self. Having gotten the energy he needed, he set off after Netto.

S-chan ran as fast as her little legs would carry her, following the tracks that the humans, wolves, and Rockman had made in the snow. None of the viruses running around paid any attention to her, she was to little to be any concern to them. She'd heard Kichi's message, and was determined to give it, and the weapon, to Netto. Perhaps if she could reach one of the wolves...

iTainn? Anuzu/i the little skunk querried. iDo any of you hear me/i

bi((I hear you, little one!))/i/b Tainn's powerful voice boomed in S-chan's mind. bi((Where are you?))/i/b

iSomewhere behind you. Kichi wants me to pass a message on to Netto/i

bi((Speak, and I shall give it to him.))/i/b

iHis dad is alive, and I'm bringing the weapon you gave Kichi to him. I don't suppose you could stop somewhere so I can catch up with you/i

bi((We are near the park. We'll wait for you there.))/i/b

S-chan stopped for a moment and spit the little start shaped crystal out of her mouth, taking a few large deep breaths of the cold air. The points of that crystal were sharp, but being that she had no hands, S-chan had no other way to carry the thing. If the situation wasn't so bad she would have waited for Kichi to come and get her, but no one knew when and where Nomde would reappear, and S-chan knew she couldn't take that chance. So with a little growl she picked the crystal back up and continued to follow the tracks of her friends.

Tainn had been running ahead of the rest of the group, acting as a scout for any trouble, but now he dropped back next to Netto and Enzan, looking up at the two boys with his blue eyes. Netto looked incrediably exhausted, and Tainn wasn't sure if the boy was even capable of making it to the park, let alone fight against the demon-navi and win.

bi((Netto, Kichi has sent a message for you. Your father is alive.))/i/b

"What!" Netto asked, startled. "Papa's okay? I thought you said he was dead!"

The startled boy stopped in his tracks, and so did Enzan and Rockman. They were looking at Tainn with disbelief as well. Enzan more so than the others, because he had been there when Yuuichiro had been shot, had seen Yuuichiro die.

"How?" Enzan asked.

bi((I do not know how, but I trust Kichi's word. If she says that he is alive, then I believe it. we also have a change of destination. We're to go to the park and wait for the little skunk to come to us. She is carrying the weapon that Kichi was supposed to give to Netto. We will need it if we are to stop Nomde. And Netto can rest a bit. He needs it.))/i/b

Netto was so faint with relief that his father was alright that the rest of Tainn's message barely registered in his mind. He was glad that Enzan and Rockman were there with him at that moment, otherwise he would have fallen over right where he stood. Never mind that he had no idea how he was supposed to beat Nomde, or that he was so tired that he wanted to just curl up and never move again. The horrible feeling that had been growing inside of him from the moment Nomde had told him of his father's death was vanishing by the second, replaced with the much lighter feeling of relief.

Rockman took the opportunity to hug his brother, his expression also one of relief. Not only because Yuuichiro was alive, but also because the pressure of deep depression that had been cutting across their link was also clearing away every moment that passed, the way sunlight burned away a morning fog. He was able to think more clearly now that those heavy emotions were lifting, and his and Netto's link was balancing out again. Enzan's only response was to gently kiss Netto on the cheek and push the two of them into a walk.

The wolf pack trotted along next to them, Tainn having bounded ahead of them to take up his position of scout once again. They weren't running any more, any fool could have seen that Netto didn't have the energy for it, and neither Enzan or Rockman could carry him. Not because they were to tired to, but because if they were attacked, it would make defending themselves very difficult. Thankfully, the park was not to far away.

Not surprisingly, the park was deserted when the group reached it. Most of the benches were buried beneath the snow, and the jungle-gym looked like an oddly shaped igloo. The street lights that lined the walkways were encusted with ice, so that the light that did get through was very pale. There were no viruses around, and the snow here was unbroken by any footsteps. The scene was very lovely, and Netto wished that he could actually enjoy it. But knowing that this was most likely where they were going to fight Nomde kept him from being able to enjoy the sight. At any rate, all he wanted to do was sit down and give his legs a rest. Which was exactly what he did, finding the closest bench to him and plopping right down, ignoring the cold snow beneath him. Enzan took a seat next to him while Rockman stood on the other side, and the wolves formed a protective circle around the three of them. Tainn had seemingly vanished, as was normal for a white wolf lying plain of snow.

They didn't have long to wait. A few minutes after they had arrived S-chan came bounding up to them, hopping right up into Netto's lap. She spit out the star-shaped crystal before hopping up onto Enzan's head, wiggling her way under his hat, where it was warmer. Enzan growled a protest as the little skunk wormed her way under his hat, but he didn't bother to try and dislodge her.

Netto looked down at the small crystal S-chan had dropped in his lap. It was about the size of an olive, and didn't look like any kind of weapon he knew of. He didn't have a clue as to how it was supposed to stop Nomde.

"Any ideas?" Enzan asked him.

"Not a clue," Netto sighed. "I never was good at puzzles."

"Well, that's good for one of us, at least," a cool voice hissed.

Nomde appeared quite suddenly about five feet from Netto and Enzan. The dark navi's eyes narrowed as he eyed Netto, who was clutching the star-crystal tightly, oblivious to the fact that its points were cutting into his flesh. 

"Why don't the lot of you just make it easy on me and give up now? It would hurt a lot less," Nomde sneered.

"Go to hell," Enzan growled in reply, stepping in front of Netto.

"I do not find that amuzing, brat," Nomde hissed angrily. "But if you wish to die slowly then so be-"

Rockman cut off Nomde's threat by shooting the dark navi in the chest with his buster. The shot knocked Nomde back a few inches, but didn't do very much in the way of actual damage other than knocking him off balance. Not that Nomde was given a chance to get his balance back, because as soon as the shot died away Tainn and the other wolves were tearing at him with tooth and claw, intent on ripping him apart as much as possible! Even S-chan had shot out from under Enzan's hat to aid in the assult.

Screaming with rage, Nomde lashed at the wolves to the best of his ability, his own claws inflicting damage into the wolves' bodies, sending them flying into the snow. Most of them didn't get back up, dazed from the blows and the large wounds that were bleeding quite freely, turning the white snow to red. Nomde growled as he looked down at his new wounds, his expression one of deep irritation.

"And I had just healed myself, too," he growled. "No matter. Bubbleman wasn't much of a meal anyways."

Rockman and Netto's eyes widened with horrow. Enzan glared coldly as Nomde. Nomde looked at them and chuckled in a very creepy way.

"What? How else do you think I get energy in an emergency. Since my primary energy source," and he gave Netto a pointed look, "got away, I had to absorb energy from somewhere, and Bubbleman was oh so helpful, not to mention right there when I needed it. For all the good it did me. Such a weak navi, not much energy to take. You, on the otherhand..."

Now he turned his gaze towards Rockman, his red eyes narrowing further. 

"Don't even think about it," Enzan growled. "You're not going to touch Rockman or Netto."

"Oh? We'll see about that. You have no weapons, and those furballs are in no condition to fight me!" Nomde screamed, charging straight at Enzan, Netto and Rockman.

"They're not, but I am!" a deep voice shouted as a very familiar red sword cut across Nomde's side, causing the demon navi to break his charge and jump to the side to avoid major damage. Still, Blues had managed to cause a bit more damage, and had placed himself between Nomde and the others.

"Blues!" Enzan cried, relieved to see that his navi was safe.

"Sorry for the delay, Enzan-sama. It took a bit of time for me to find you."

The sound of an engine coming up the narrow street caught everyone's attention, including Nomde's, who's eyes narrowed with irritation at the sight of the new arrivals. The snow mobile skidded to a stop, and there was Kichi and Meijin, come to help Netto and Enzan and the navis. Kichi had recollected most of her knives, the ones that weren't broken, at any rate. Using them would be difficult, but at least this was't going to be one on one again. They were the ones who outnumbered Nomde.

"Netto, are you okay?" Kichi called out, getting off of the snow mobile.

"Yeah, and I got your message. Thanks."

"What message is that?" Nomde hissed, looking from one person to the other. He was indecisive as to who to attack first. He knew if he went after Netto that they would all attack him, so how would he seperate Netto from the others so that they didn't realize it until it was to late.

"None of your business," Kichi snapped, launching one of her knives at Nomde. He dodged it easily, as Kichi had expected him to. She hadn't tried to hide her attack, so he would have seen it coming immediately.

"That's not very nice, Seer," Nomde sneered. "I guess my first lesson wasn't enough for you. I'll have to give you another one."

"You couldn't teach a rock," Kichi sneered back, tossing her head dismissively.

"What are you doing?" Meijin hissed in Kichi's ear.

"Making him mad," Kichi replied calmly. "The madder he is, the blinder he'll be to what's going on around him. As long as his rage is focused on me, he'll notice nothing else."

Kichi was telling Netto and Rockman the same thing silently. Or rather, she was telling Netto, and Rockman could hear it through there link. They would only have one chance at this, and if they missed it this time, there would be no second chance. She glanced at Netto, and saw the fear and confusion on his face. She also saw a flicker of light in his hand..a dark light. It was the thing the wolves had given her that had flickered. And then something in her mind clicked. Emotion. It responded to emotion.

iNetto! That thing reacts to emotion! That's the trigger/i Kichi 'shouted' to her cousin. iI know you can figure this out, cousin. Just wait for my signal./i

"A rock?" Nomde growled, his claws tearing into the snow covered ground. "I'll show you just how great my power is, you worthless piece of human flesh! By the time I'm through with you, you'll wish that you had died on that mountain!"

"Power? You have no true power," Kichi sneered back, taking out two of her longer knives. She ignored the pain in her broken wrist. She'd lived with pain before, she'd have to live with it now if she was going to keep Nomde's attention on her long enough for this to work. She sent a silent prayer to the heavens that it would work, and that they'd all come out of it alive, minus one demon. "You're nothing more than a spinless leech, who feeds off of others. True power? Pah, you're lower than a worm, for a worm has even more power in the tip of its body than you have in all of yours."

If there was anything that could tip Nomde's rage over the edge, Kichi had found it. His eyes were narrow slits of violent red now, and the only thing they saw was Kichi. A dark aura extended around him, sending bits of snow flying backwards. Kichi nudged Meijin to move out of the way; there would be no helping her at this moment. She put everything out of her mind and focused on Nomde alone. The final battle had begun.

Netto felt the blood drain from his face as he felt the rage that poured out of Nomde's frame. How could Kichi possibly think she could hold him off long enough for Netto and the others to attack. How could they possibly be strong enough to stop Nomde? It was insane! He was to strong! Regal had been nothing compared to this!

As if sensing his fear and doubt, Enzan took ahold of Netto's hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

"We can do this, Netto-kun," He said firmly.

"Enzan, he's to strong!" Netto all but wailed, shaking his head.

"No he's not!" Rockman said, his voice as firm as Enzan's. "Kichi's right, he doesn't have any real power, only what he draws from us. The more we're afraid of him, the stronger he is."

"Don't give in to that fear, Netto-kun," Blues said quietly, but with no less authority.

"They're right, Netto. If Kichi can fight against that thing, so can we," Meijin said slipping up along side them. Though he wouldn't say it out loud, though, he was very worried. Kichi had been injured going into that fight, and she wouldn't be able to hold out against him much longer.

Netto seemed to be thinking the same thing as he watched Kichi dodge another blow that Nomde had thrown in her direction. She was tiring quickly. There was no time for him to be afraid. There were to many people depending on him. His friends, his family, so many he didn't know, but were counting on him all the same. In his hand the crystal began to spark to life...

Rage ran through Nomde's body as the Seer dodged yet another one of his blows. How could she still be standing? Any normal human should have been dead from exhaustion by now, let alone all of the damage she had already endured. She couldn't possibly win against him, she didn't have enough strength. Once he killed her he could finish off the others and take Netto back. Then nothing would stand in his way.

A flicker of movement nearby caught his eye. For the past several minutes he had forgotten that the one he sought and those other troublesome pests were here. He had been totally focused on destroying the Seer that he hadn't noticed the others. They hadn't tried to jump in the fight to help their friend, which was very odd. Why were they letting her fight alone? What bwas/b that flickering?

The crystal. That weapon/thing the wolves had given to the boy. That was the source of the flickering. The damned brat had figured out how to work it! Screaching loud enough to shatter glass Nomde abandonned his fight with Kichi, leaping clear over the young woman, landing in front of Netto. Without hesitation he slashed at Meijin and Enzan, sending them to the ground. At the same time Blues and Rockman attacked the demon navi, only to be thrown aside as easily as the humans were. 

Netto staggered back a few steps, clutching tightly to the crystal star. He was gripping it so tightly that he drew fresh blood as the tips dug into his hand. The little object was humming very loudly, sounding a lot like a swarm of bees that had been captured in a jar. It was no longer flickering, but growing brightly, the light pulsing in a steady rhythm, like a heart beat. And with each beat it was getting brighter. 

"You will die!" Nomde roared, grabbing Netto by his neck, lifting him off of the ground. A shield of dark energy surrounded them both, blocking them from the others, both physically, and from sight. Enzan and Rockman screamed, banging their fists against the energy wall, and Blues tried to break through with his sword, but the sword shattered against it, and the fists of the human and navi did no damage at all. They were helpless to help Netto.

Inside of the energy wall Nomde was slowly cutting off Netto's air supply. The demon navi's eyes glowed with hatred as he stared at Netto, the source of all his trouble. It no longer mattered to Nomde whether or not the boy could be used as an energy source to keep his dark dimension area up over the world. All that mattered was killing him.

"Do you hear that, brat? You're friends are shouting to you. They can't do a single thing to save you. Right now, they feel nothing but dispair, and it feeds my strength. And you're feeling it to, aren't you? I can sense it inside of you. Despair and pain, eating away at you. Pathetic, weak human."

"You're...wrong.." Netto managed to get out, despite the tight grip on his throat. "I don't feel dispair. Not in me, and not from them either."

"Insolent brat!" Nomde sneered. "I'll break you like a twig!"

Netto felt the world blacking out around him, and fought against it. He could feel his friends near by, even if he couldn't see them. Rockman, who was a beacon of hope even in the darkest of storms, Kichi, who was one of the bravest people he knew. Meijin, clever, craftly Meijin, always ready for just about anything. And Enzan, who loved him so deeply that nothing could shatter it.

The crystal was pulsing so brightly now, the light so bright that it was nearly blinding. Depsite having his air cut off to a mere trickle Netto hadn't dropped it, and now he knew just what to do with it.

"I WON'T GIVE UP!" Netto shouted, punching the crystal into Nomde's face as hard as he could.

The light that had been pulsing from the star suddenly exploded from inside, engulfing everything within the dark sphere, rushing out of it before anyone had time to blink. There was a sound like the roaring of a powerful wind, and a heat that was beyond imagining. Somewhere within the radiant light Nomde's screams could be heard for a moment, then only the rushing roar of the wind could be heard. And just as suddenly as it had began, the wind, the heat, and the light were gone, and all was still once more.

He could hear something beeping softly nearby, his mind picking up the noise, but not registering it very clearly. He felt warm, and there was something heavy covering his body. He could feel that he was lying on something soft, and he was far more comfortable at the moment than he could remember being in a long time.

"Netto-kun! Netto-kun!"

Someone was calling him. Netto could hear the voice, as if it were being shouted down a long tunnel. He felt as if it were pulling him up, to where he wasn't sure.

"Netto-kun! Oi, Netto! WAKE UP!"

The sudden shout immediately woke Netto up, far more effectively than any alarm clock ever could. Gasping from the sudden shock, Netto looked around to find himself lying a hospital bed, once again hooked up to a bunch of machines. Sitting in a chair next to him, a big grin on her face, was Kichi. She was covered in bandages, from what he could see, and like him, had an I.V. stuck in her arm.

"What did you do that for?" Netto asked angrily.

"Sorry, Netto. I tried to stop her, but she wouldn't listen," Rockman apologized from the Pet sitting on the table next to Netto's bed.

"I couldn't think of any other way to wake you up, so... And besides, you've been sleeping for a week straight." Kichi shrugged and winced at the pain it caused. Netto stuck his tongue out at her.

"Rockman, you're back in your Pet!" Netto exclaimed happily. "Wait, what happened? Nomde was beaten, right?"

"You wouldn't be sitting here if he hadn't been. Duh," Kichi replied, sticking her tongue back out at Netto. Then her expression became serious. "You don't remember a thing, do you?"

"Not really," Netto replied. "What happened?"

"We're not sure, actually," Kichi said, a distant look in her eyes. "Nomde had put that barrier up around you, so we couldn't see what was going on inside. But the next thing we knew, this whirlwind of light came out, blinding all of us, and it pretty much pinned us in place. It only lasted for a few seconds, and when we were finally able to see again, we found you lying on the ground, out cold, and Nomde completely gone. That crystal that Tainn gave us was shattered, and the dark dimensional area was gone, and so were all of the viruses and navis, all sent back to the Net. Meijin was about the only one of us able to move more than a few inches, so he called the medical team that he'd had standing by to come and pick us up. Needless to say, everyone made it through in one piece, more or less."

"Tainn, and the other wolves?"

"Being tended to by Saloma and Daisuke. The hospital staff was less than thrilled, but I think they were even more frightened of me than they were of the wolves."

"I'd believe it," Netto muttered. Kichi gave him a dark look.

"How are Laika and his friend?"

"Alive, kicking, and annoying as ever," Kichi snorted. "Apparently that girl, Pyp is her name, is going to go back to Sharro with Laika. She seems to enjoy being with Laika, something I just can't understand." Kichi shook her head disparingly. "Uncle Yuuichiro is fine as well; he came in to see you earlier, but you were still asleep."

"And Enzan?"

"Is right here," Enzan said, coming through the door, Meijin right behind him. The older boy smiled at his beloved and sat down on the bed next to Netto. "Welcome back to the world of the living."

"Thanks," Netto said, blushing slightly.

"Aww, how cute," Kichi said, snickering. Meijin took her by the arm and began pulling her out of the room.

"Come on," Meijin said, sighing in an exasperated fashion. "You said you were going to let me show you how to work your new Pet, remember?"

"WHAT?" Kichi's protests could be heard, even out in the hall. "I never agreed to even get a Pet! I bet you asked me when I was still drugged on painkillers, didn't you...!"

Netto and Enzan began to laugh as the protests faded away as Meijin dragged Kichi back to her own end of the hospital. Sighing, Netto laid his head of Enzan's shoulder, feeling his entire body relax and Enzan placed his arms securely around the younger boy. Inside of the Pet, Rockman and Blues were sitting in a similar manner.

"I'm glad that you're okay," Netto said softly, snuggling up closer to Enzan.

"I'm glad that you're okay too, Netto. We were worried you wouldn't make it. The doctors said that it was pretty close."

Netto smiled. "Nah, I knew it'd be alright. I knew you'd be waiting for me when it was all over."

Enzan smiled back and Netto and leaned back against the pillow, pulling the smaller boy with him. "Of course I'd be waiting. I love you."

"I love you to, Enzan."

Curling up in Enzan's arms, Netto allowed himself to be lulled back to sleep, comforted by the steady beating of his lover's heart.

fin

First of all, I would like to say one thing. Battle scenes suck to write! The main reason this took so long was because of the fricken battle scene. Oh well, I did manage to get it written.

I would like to send a special thanks to my dear friend Neko, for without her, this fanfic, and this trilogy, would never have made it past chapter 5 of the first fanfic (seriously, it wouldn't.)

To all of the people who have been following my fics, sending me your lovely reviews/critiques, encouragement, I thank you as well. 

To those who read but don't review, I thank you for reading as well, but would love you more if you gave me your two sense on the fics (but no flames.)

To those people who have emailed me with reviews, asking when I was going to hook up Kichi and Laika. Let it be noted that in this fic, Laika is 15. Kichi is in her early twenties. He's to young for her! So sorry, it ain't gonna happen. Sorry.

So thank you all who have read and waited patiently for this, the final chapter of Lock and Key.

goes to soak her hands and curl up in a corner 


End file.
